Runaway
by peach83
Summary: Katie Singer vowed to hate every living Sammler in the world because of a bitter past with one. Can Jessie Sammler turn bitter into sweet as their fates connived to bring the two of them together?
1. Revelations

**RUNAWAY**

**By: peach83**

**DISCLAIMER: **same same… I don't own them…

**SYNOPSIS: **Katie Singer vowed to hate every living Sammler in the world because of a bitter past with one. Can Jessie Sammler turn bitter into sweet?

**A/N: **I know I said I won't be writing much when school starts, but I can't help it… So, in this AU fic, Jessie and Grace aren't stepsisters… And yeah, let's try something new, Katie is the straight one…

**CHAPTER 1 REVELATIONS**

Fort Lauderdale, Florida…

It was one cold December night, and the rain, which rarely pours, had just stopped. It was, indeed, a very cold night. Katherine Singer came out of a church wearing her favorite brown jacket. People outside hurried to get to their cars, excited to go home for dinner with their families after their church service.

Katie, as her friends usually call her, stops walking. She takes her time to look around, memories simultaneously flashing through her mind. The best moments in her life happened right here, right in this church. At least that's what she thought. Her life's fairy tale turned out to be her worst nightmare…

She stood there, not realizing the thinning crowd of people around. It was starting to drizzle again, and she's the only one, it seems, who isn't worried about getting wet. She reaches something from the right pocket of her jacket, and holds on to it.

Reluctantly, she made a few steps, her eyes wander in search for something, and upon finding what she's looking for, she stops in front of it: a large dumpster. From the right pocket of her jacket, she clutched the thing inside, tight. Gathering all of her guts, she let out a deep breath, and finally, pulls it out of her pocket.

It was a small red box…

She opens the box, and inside it was a beautiful and obviously expensive engagement ring. As she looked at it, she realized, this is going to be the hardest thing she'll ever do in her life… That would be letting go…

She stares at the ring one final time, and talks to herself…

"Somebody out there deserves you more… And it's not me…" Katie sighs, pulls the ring out of the box, and with all her might, throws it into the dumpster. Strange as it was, it's as if the burden in her heart was lifted. Like a thorn had been pulled out of her chest. She turns around, and walks away…

Thrilled, her mind wanders with thoughts of moving on, when she was bumped in the shoulder that almost knocked her down. She turns around with a glare, almost certain to pounce on the person who's so careless not to notice her, and finds a blonde woman, a bit shorter than her (though she seem to have a really strong shoulder), smiling at her, her blue eyes looking at Katie's green ones, looking ready to apologize…

The woman in front of her has such a beautiful smile, that Katie's glare suddenly turned to a smile of her own, a sheepish one… Then, Katie feels rather stupid for thinking that another woman's smile could actually be beautiful to her…

Both of them open their mouths to apologize, but neither was able to say a word. They stood in silence, smiling at each other… It's a silent conversation that only the two of them understood…

Pause… Then Katie remembers she's supposed to meet her bestfriend and co-worker Tad at some bar that night, and she was running late. She takes her eyes off the blonde, and walks away. The blonde one does the same…

Oddly, Katie feels the need to look at those blue eyes again, so she turns around for one last look… Her face flushes bright red upon seeing her looking and smiling at her just the same. Both embarrassed, they walk away in opposite directions, feeling too awkward to look again…

They walk away wondering…

_What just happened?... _Katie shakes her head in amusement… She had never felt so giddy towards anyone of the same sex before, but that girl, and that smile was just… BREATH-TAKING…

MONTHS LATER…

The following year, month of May… Emergency Room, Broward General Medical Center, 1600 South Andrews Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, Florida… It's a Sunday, and Katie, a nurse, just finished working the night shift, and just concluded her endorsements to Grace, who's working the morning shift.

"Where's Dr. Jessica Sammler?" Asks Julie, one of Katie and Grace's co-nurses. The long-haired brunette entered the Emergency Room, which was surprisingly empty at the moment. The question turns Katie's smile into a frown.

"Who?" Katie almost growls.

"We have a new resident. She was here yesterday. And why do you sound so irritated?" Grace raises an eyebrow at Katie. Katie's facial expression looks too serious and formal.

"What's her name again?"

"Jessica Sammler." Grace repeats the name. Julie smiles.

"She's hot." Julie then grins. Grace widens her eyes mockingly at Julie, and Julie giggles. Katie rolls her eyes.

"Aren't you supposed to be straight?" Katie looks at Julie in disbelief.

"Oh, I am… But have you even seen her?" Julie winks at Katie.

"Is this normal?" Katie shakes her head and turns at Grace.

"I don't know, but Julie's right. She's hot." Grace smiles at Katie, knowing that this will piss Katie off. It's obvious that Katie isn't that fond of the new doctor as much as everyone is, though she has no idea why. Jessie seems so nice.

"And gay. If ever I decided to try and experiment, I'd definitely go out with her. She's perfect." Julie jokes.

"That's a pretty nice thing to say from someone who just broke up with her boyfriend." Katie growls at Julie, to Julie's surprise. Katie's comment was below the belt, making her flare.

"Hey, I don't pry with your life, so don't poke your nose on mine." Julie snarls at Katie, but Katie doesn't look sorry.

"Jessica Sammler is not perfect, that's for sure. She's just another arrogant, miserable, washed-up professional who will inflict every bit of frustration on us." Katie almost shouts at them. Grace looks at her wide-eyed.

"How can you say that? Do you even know her?" Julie shouts back. Katie was taken aback by Julie's reaction, and realizes she shouted first. Grace watches them in shock.

"No, I don't know her…" Katie sighs.

"So how can you say all those things about her?" Julie frowns at Katie. Katie can be such a diva sometimes.

"Yeah, I don't think its right to judge people, Katie. She seems nice to me." Grace seconds.

"Do you know her?" Katie turns to Grace.

"Well, no, but---"

"Then I rest my case."

"Singer, chill out. She's just a new resident. Why are you overreacting?" Julie has no idea where Katie's animosity is coming from. The dirty blonde is normally friendly. Feeling the tension building among them, Grace breaks the ice.

"So she may not be perfect. But please, don't judge her before you get to know her. I think it's rude." Grace says calmly to Katie. Katie shrugs it off. She then heads to the bathroom. And when she's gone, Julie and Grace exchanged looks.

"What's her problem?" Julie frowns.

"Don't ask me." Grace sighs. Katie sure has some issues to deal with.

x - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - x

Katie, after picking up some coffee from Starbucks, heads home to her 10th floor apartment not so far away from the medical center she works at. When she reaches her floor, she finds Tad, another nurse at Broward, and her bestfriend, sitting on her doorstep. He gets up upon seeing her.

"Good. Now you're here." Tad smiles at her.

"I had a feeling that you'd be here." Katie smiles back, handing him a cup of coffee. She bought two. She unlocks her door and gets in, followed by Tad.

"I brought breakfast." Tad puts a brown paper bag on the table at the dining room.

"Just what I need. Thanks." Katie occupies a chair, and Tad sits opposite her. She goes through the paper bag and pulls out some French fries. Katie chuckles.

"What?"

"Don't you think it's too early for this?" Katie lifts a piece of fry and eats it anyway.

"Hey, I love French fries."

"I could never understand you." Katie shakes her head, then picks up another piece of fry. Tad does the same. He then notices something: something really surprising. Katie realizes that Tad had been staring at her left hand.

"What?" Katie growls at him. Tad looks up at Katie with a questioning look at his face.

"Where is it?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Katie frowns.

"Your engagement ring, where is it?" For the first time in the past year, Katie isn't wearing the ring, and since Katie had thrown it, it was only now that Tad actually noticed. It's a good sign, actually. It just really surprised Tad.

"Why are you looking for it?"

"No reason… I'm just surprised." Tad shrugs. Knowing how touchy Katie is when it comes to this subject, Tad knew better to shut up.

"I threw it." Katie confessed, which almost got Tad choking on his coffee.

"What?" Tad strained to be able to talk. He could still feel some coffee stuck in his throat.

"I threw it." Katie replies calmly.

"Why?"

"I had to do that…" Katie looks down at the table, avoiding Tad's eyes.

"Yesterday was supposed to be your wedding anniversary. Only that you ran away from your own wedding a year ago… What did you do?" Tad hears her sigh.

"I stayed home… This whole year, I've been trying my best to avoid everything, every place, every people that reminds me of Eli, because it relives the pain. Then one day, I woke up, and I realized that moving on is not about avoiding all the things that haunts you and causes you pain. It's dealing with it. I've been hurting for so long, and I think that's enough. I'm ready to accept the fact that everything is over now. Eli is not a part of my life anymore…" Katie sighs again. She's surprised at herself. For the first time, talking about her ex-fiance, Elijah Richard Sammler III, did not make her cry. It's definitely a progress on her part…

After watching Katie, Tad is glad to see that Katie, indeed, is coping well with the break up… Well, it's been a year. His bestfriend has had enough misery already. It's about time to move on. He gets up from his chair and goes around the table to give her a hug.

"I'm happy for you." Tad smiles.

"And this is rather cheesy, Tad." Katie jokes, but appreciates her friend's concern. Tad goes back to his chair and eats a mouthful of French fries.

"I've met our new doctor." Tad grins. Katie rolls her eyes.

"You mean Jessica Sammler? Who cares?" Katie is suddenly irritated, to Tad's surprise.

"She's---"

"Hot. I know what you're gonna say. Julie and Grace said the same thing." Katie remembers Julie's comments about his new girl. Nobody is that gorgeous, is there? Or maybe Julie's just exaggerating.

"So, you've seen her?"

"No, and I hope not."

"That's impossible. You're gonna be working with her some time soon. And besides, she IS hot." Tad confirms. Katie rolls her eyes again. Tad can be too shallow at times.

"Believe me, I wouldn't think of the same thing."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't normally think of women like that." Katie's statement only gives Tad a playful idea, it's obvious with the smirk on his face.

"You know, maybe you should try your luck with women this time." Tad winks at her.

"Not if you still want to live." Katie playfully threatens him, and Tad pretends to be scared, then both of them start laughing. Katie, who's really hungry after hours of working from last night, continues devouring the French fries Tad had bought for them. She didn't realize she's eating more than she normally would, and Tad is watching her closely.

"It's just a surname." Katie's reaction towards Jessica Sammler just wouldn't leave his memory. Katie throws him a look that could, somehow, kill. But Tad didn't flinch.

"What?"

"So the new resident doctor is a Sammler. I thought you've let go of Eli. You just heard his surname, and I think you're overreacting. Katie, you can't keep a grudge against every Sammler in the world."

"I don't have a grudge against any one of them." Katie sulks, realizing how wrong this picture is: she's acting childish while Tad is the one being mature…

_The moon must be full… _Katie thought it's the only logical explanation.

"I just don't understand how Grace and Julie could like this new resident in the first place." Katie continues with a disappointed sigh.

"What's the big deal? Why wouldn't you just give yourself a chance to get to know this doctor first before you judge her? She deserves a chance, doesn't she?" Tad waits for Katie's reply. Katie, on the other hand, shifts her gaze constantly; from the table, to the floor, then sideways to the walls, before looking back at Tad…

"She's Eli's younger sister." Katie finally tells.

"What?" Tad asks in disbelief.

"She's Eli's younger sister." Katie repeats rather impatiently. She knew Tad heard her, but Tad really needs to emphasize everything sometimes.

"You've never mentioned anything about Eli having a sister, or having a sibling for that matter."

"I haven't met Jessie… Their maid at their estate (in Utah) told me… I asked Eli about her, and I learned that Jessie ran away from home when she was 16. She lived with a relative somewhere in Boston and never called or came back. I asked why, and he told me that Jessie was too selfish and too arrogant to stay." Katie sighs. She never really understood what Eli meant, but she believed him. She has no idea what Jessie looks like since Eli and his father had practically got rid of everything which belonged to the long lost daughter. Katie wished she had met Jessie, and had became friends, then maybe that fateful night of losing Eli (or letting go) wouldn't have to happen… She would have had someone to confide her feelings with… Tad is a great listener, but there are things that Katie just couldn't share with him…

"So you haven't met Jessica, or Jessie, and she's Eli's younger sister, that's why you don't like her?" Tad sums up with incredulity.

"She disowned her parents." Katie states in her defense. Still, the incredulous look in Tad's face stayed.

"You really haven't let Eli go, have you?"

"This isn't about Eli." Katie says firmly, locking eyes with Tad without blinking to prove her point. Tad isn't blinking either.

"You HAVEN'T met Jessie."

"She's a bad person!" Katie slightly raises her voice.

"And a Sammler?" Tad stares back at Katie with gentle, yet accusing eyes. And, it was Katie who blinked first. She gets up from her chair, almost wanting to throw a fit, but decides against it. She isn't sure what her stand is when it comes to Eli, but she sure had tried her best to let Eli go. Sometimes, she still thinks about him, but she isn't sure how she feels for him anymore.

"You know what? I haven't had enough sleep for days, and I'm going to sleep. Lock the door when you leave." Katie leaves Tad alone at the dining table, as she heads to the comforts of her bedroom…

SUNDAY…

Katie was standing in front of the church again, looking around as if trying to find something… Or someone… Truth is, she's never really a religious person. In the few times that she had been here, it's only been for a few reasons: whether Eli was insistent on going to church with her, and that last time she was here for a service in December…

That unforgettable, one cold night in December…

Katie stood in front of the church, staring at nothing in particular. That night, she asked for help, from God, to let her let go of Eli. Throwing the ring was one part of it. She wanted a new life, she wanted to smile again… And she did smile that night… Somebody made her smile… Someone she never expected could make her smile…

"What are you waiting for, Christmas?" A voice came from behind Katie. She didn't have to turn around to see it was---

"What are you doing here, Grace?" Katie smiles.

"Same reason why you're here." Grace walks to Katie and stops by her side.

"Why am I here?" Katie jokes at Grace. Grace ponders for a while before answering.

"I don't know."

"So you don't know why you're here either?" Katie sounds incredulous. Grace shrugs.

"Guess so." Grace chuckles. "Looking for her again?" Grace asks knowingly. Katie turns to face her. She mentioned that incident in December, when she bumped with this woman, and how that encounter put a smile on her face. She just couldn't keep it to herself. Instead of telling Tad, she told Grace, whom she thought wouldn't put any malice on it…

She was right. Grace had been more understanding than she expected…

"Why would you want to see her again anyway?"

"I don't know… Maybe because I don't have much friends, and I want her to be one of those few friends… She seems really nice." Katie knew that sounded silly; it sounded silly in her own ears… It's weird enough that she's standing here waiting for that woman who smiled at her that cold night in December…

"Yeah, you told me that, and that she has one gorgeous smile." Grace grins at Katie. Katie rolls her eyes. Okay, so maybe she was wrong about that malice part.

"I'm just curious, okay?"

"About a person you've only seen once?" Grace raises her voice in amusement. Katie had usually been moody after she called her wedding off last year. But when her friend told her about this encounter with this cute smiling blonde girl last December, Katie seemed happier, and less grumpy. She sees her smile more often, which is good, but weird on Grace's part… How could some girl do this to Katie? What does this mystery girl has?

"I just want to see her, okay? I don't know how, I don't know why, I'm driving myself crazy just by thinking of what could it possibly be… That night was one of my life's meaningless coincidences. It would be easy to let it go and move on… But I can't stop wondering about her…"

"Sounds like Katie Singer is crushing on a girl." Grace jokes and giggles. Katie slightly blushes but Grace doesn't notice.

"It's not a crush, it's… Haven't you encountered anyone that made every sad feeling in your heart disappear just seeing that person smile? It's magical. I mean, that night in December was one of the hardest times in my life… And then this meaningless coincidence happened… It was one simple smile in one single moment, and all of a sudden, everything feels good again…" Katie smiles dreamily. Grace was awestruck.

"You do know that sounded so gay, right?"

"I'm not gay." But Katie is still blushing. What did she just say?

"You're wasting your time."

"No I'm not."

"Katie, you're standing in the entrance of a deserted church after a service on a blistering summer night looking for a girl you've only seen once in your life, just because you're curious? Talk about wasting time, you're being stupid." Grace points out.

"Whatever, Grace… I'm not asking you to stay…" Katie stayed standing there, staring at nowhere. Grace sighs.

_You got it bad, Singer, and you don't even have a clue… _Grace shakes her head, and walks away…

Broward Medical Center… The night was calm, the corridors so quiet, you can hear yourself breathing. Few people can be seen walking. Some were relatives of the patients, most were nurses on duty. Katie felt some sort of longing in her heart, eating every energy that was left in her… It was a weakening silence she had never felt before… She felt her shoulders fall so suddenly, as she took the elevator down to the ground floor to fill in her night shift after visiting a sick friend at the sixth floor…

_Great, I'm going to be late again… _Katie constantly glances at her wrist watch, and realizes that she will actually be late again… Grace isn't going to be so happy about this…

First, there were five of them inside. The elevator stops on the fifth floor and takes in another two passengers, making them seven. Katie was too occupied to even pay attention to the other people around her. At the fourth floor, four of them boarded off, leaving three of them inside… On the third floor, the other one boarded off, leaving Katie with another blond female inside…

Then it happens…

The lights inside the elevator flickered for a few times before it completely went out. Surprised by herself, Katie didn't even feel a bit of panic inside her. She just stood there, waiting, though a bit irritated. She's running late for her shift after all. The emergency red light turned on, it was blinding. She closed her eyes, forgetting for a while that she wasn't alone…

"I'm so dead…" Katie sighs…

"You look pretty alive to me…" A joking female voice came from somewhere, which makes Katie look around. She sees a figure slump on the floor.

"Yeah, well, unfortunately…" Katie says bitterly, not noticing the frown forming on the other female's face. Something clicks in Katie's head and she reaches for the elevator buttons on their right, searching for the button to be able to contact someone from the outside… The other female who's still sitting comfortably in the floor watched her…

"I tried that, it didn't work." The blonde informs Katie.

"When?" Katie rather growls impatiently. It's supposed to work.

"Uh, just now?" The other female's left eyebrow raises at the dirty blonde's rudeness, but she couldn't blame her. Katie had been so lost in her thoughts that she didn't notice the blonde do just that a few seconds ago…

_Maybe she's claustrophobic?... _The blonde thought…

"Shit…" Katie is on the verge of kicking the elevator door open, but of course, knew perfectly that she isn't supergirl, and actually kicking that thick metal door would be stupid.

Pause… The blonde girl sitting on the floor falls in silence. Katie eventually gets tired of standing and slumps on the floor herself, opposite the other girl. Her eyes fall on the silhouette of the other female opposite her, but couldn't make out what the other person looks like in the dark. Suddenly feeling a little guilty, she knew she had acted unreasonably snappy. From the dark, she could tell that the other girl has a rather gentle personality, she could tell just by hearing the soft voice…

It was so soft, but it felt like it was breaking through Katie's walls…

"I'm sorry…" It took a lot of Katie's pride just to say that…

_Why am I even apologizing to her?_

"What?"

"I said I'm sorry… I was rude…" Katie looks straight back into the person sitting opposite her… Still couldn't figure out what the other female looks like.

"That's okay…" The blonde smiles… And weird enough as it is, Katie could feel her smile… "Been having a bad day?" The blonde follows up with a question.

"How can you tell?" Katie asks.

"I've been dealing with different kinds of people for years now. I guess I learned how to read people's moods." The blonde replied.

"So what are you, a psychiatrist?" Katie assumes.

"Something along that line, yeah." The smile remains plastered on the blonde's face. There's something about this snappy female in front of her that's so intriguing… "What do you do?"

"I'm a nurse." Katie admits. The other female pauses for a while, Katie could swear she could see the blonde grinning in the dark, rather playfully, but she couldn't really confirm.

"Interesting." The blonde says in a higher octave, which gets Katie narrowing her eyes on her.

"What?"

"You heard me. Don't make me say it again." The blonde, in fact, was grinning. Her playful tone, yet still soft voice, keeps drawing Katie in…

"So, what exactly do you mean by 'interesting'?"

"I meant... I meant that's hot…" The blonde, although sounded like joking, made Katie blush. Katie then hears the blonde giggle.

"I'm sorry, I'm normally charming, not scary…" The blonde actually managed to say it in the most suave way, eliciting an almost embarrassed smile from Katie… She's isn't offended, it just seemed weird and awkward…

_So she's gay… _Katie thought the other girl sounded so gentle to be gay. But what does she know about that anyway? She, herself, had been having unexplainable daydreams about a certain female… Not lewd daydreams, those are actually innocent ones, but still, dreams that turns out to be not so platonic in the end…

_And yes, I AM straight… _Katie reiterates to herself, taking a note to make an appointment with a therapist as soon as possible, and making sure not to tell Grace or Tad…

"I hope I didn't offend you in anyway…"

"No, not at all…" Katie smiles.

"It's just that you suddenly fell quiet and---"

"I just remembered something." Katie sounds sincere. The blonde stares at her for a while before asking again.

"May I know what about?"

"Just this person that I like, I think…" Katie's mind wanders back to that cold night in December, and a dreamy smile plasters in her face… "Someone I couldn't get out of my head, no matter how hard I try… Despite the fact of seeing that person only once, I couldn't forget… The sexy smile, the way it made me feel, the mystery… It all sounds silly, but…" Katie giggles to herself… "Have you ever felt that way? I mean, helplessly attracted to someone you're not even supposed to be attracted to?" Katie asks. She normally wouldn't discuss this with a stranger, but she feels comforted just by being here with this person…

The blonde thinks for a while, remembering a personal event in her life, and she smiles…

"I know how it feels…"

"So… What would you do if fate brings you two together again?"

"I'll kiss her… And maybe, never let go…" The blonde has her own dreamy smile plastered in her face.

The two fall into another few minutes of silence, both drifting into their own daydream (or nightdream, whatever the right term is)… Katie then starts feeling hungry. She forgot she hadn't taken any dinner that night. She had left home early to visit Russel, a friend from highschool, who's currently confined at their hospital. She reaches for her bag, rummaging for something in particular, and upon getting hold of what she's looking for, she pulls it out, creating sounds from some plastic…

"Would you like some kisses?" Katie asks innocently, not realizing for a while how she could have sounded on the girl opposite her.

"Excuse me?" The blonde almost chokes an imaginary lump in her throat. That came out of nowhere, and even if she would be stuck here for days, she didn't consider hearing that from the nurse sitting opposite her…

Suddenly realizing what her question might have implied, Katie feels her cheeks turn warm. Embarrassed, she backpedals, and managed to do it in a rather calm way.

"Kisses, Hersheys." Katie corrects, then giggles.

"Oh…" The blonde sounded relieved and disappointed at the same time.

"You thought I was trying to seduce you?" Katie asks in amusement, this time embarrassing the blonde.

"Well, I thought you were, and I wouldn't have complained… But I was surprised." The blonde explains, then giggles. Katie smiles, thinking of how cute the blonde's giggle was…

_Okay, that sounded even more gay… _Katie shakes her head out of cobwebs…

"I never dreamt of doing it in an elevator though. There's too much chance of getting caught and not finish what you started. It's frustrating." Katie jokes.

"So… Where do you want to do it?" The blonde jokes back, half-flirting.

"Surprise me…" Katie surprises herself again…

_I'm actually flirting back!_… The air was charged, there's tension, but not a bad one. Both of them know it, they could feel it… But what to do? They have no idea. This elevator has to start working now, or who knows what could happen next…

"What's your wildest dream?" Katie asks. The blonde raises an eyebrow.

"Do you really wanna know? I'm telling you, it will gross you out." The blonde jokes.

"I'm bestfriends with Tad. Nothing else can gross me out." Katie replied, which the blonde didn't understand.

"Huh?"

"Never mind. Come on, tell me."

"My wildest dream would be jumping 20,000 feet in the air on a parachute." The blonde grins.

"Really?" Katie sounds disbelieving.

"You don't believe me."

"It's just unbelievable." Katie shrugs. The blonde smiles.

"What, you expected me to say having a ménage a toir with two gorgeous females in one night?" The blonde sounded amused.

"Something like that, yeah. Well, you do like females." Katie chuckles.

"Yeah, but I'm not a pig. I still believe that doing 'it' with someone should mean something, and not just to satisfy some lustful desires." The blonde replies in defense.

"Hmm… Good point."

"Ha-ha."

"So, why don't you?" Katie asks in curiosity.

"It's hard to find someone you'd feel instantly connected with…" The blonde answered, which got Katie contorting her forehead.

"I'm talking about the jumping-from-the-air-on-a-parachute thing." Katie laughs. The blonde blushes in embarrassment again. Katie could embarrass her all night, but she wouldn't get mad…

"Right, uhm… There's this little problem… I'm afraid of heights." The blonde admits.

"Oh, so you're a chicken?" Katie jokes.

"I'm not a chicken. Everyone has fear of something. What are you afraid of?"

"Nothing." Katie mocks indignity. The blonde giggles.

"You're not supergirl… Really, what are you afraid of?" The blonde wished she could see the dirty blonde's eyes… But that's gonna have to wait…

"I'm afraid of losing the people that I care about…" Katie sighs… It happened to her once, she doesn't want it to happen again…

"I think everyone is… You shouldn't take anyone for granted, because sometimes, you're not meant to lose someone; you're just forced to let go because you have no choice. Sometimes when I look back, I wished I could make things different, but I can't… Instead, I just feel helpless, crying alone at night…" The blonde falls in silence again. Katie watches her in the dark… How she wished she could reach out and hug the other girl in front of her…

But she was scared; scared of how that would make her feel…

"Most people wouldn't admit that." Katie jokes to lighten up the situation. The blonde smiles.

"And I don't know why I just told you that…"

The lights flicker again. Katie and the blonde girl got up from the floor, and finally, the light of the elevator switched back on. Feeling victoriously happy with the lights on, Katie and the blonde girl turned with a smile for each other, only to surprise themselves…

Katie could never forget that smile… The longing that she felt minutes ago had suddenly melted.

"It's you…" Katie uttered in disbelief, with a smile…

"And you…" The blonde couldn't believe it either…

They had reached the ground floor. They haven't even finished enjoying their euphoria when the door opened…

"Dr. Sammler." Grace's voice made Katie and the blonde turn to her.

"What?" Katie's smile suddenly turns to a frown. She waits for Grace to answer. Grace turns to Katie.

"As usual, you're late. Where the hell have you been?" Grace asks, but Katie didn't answer, as she's still waiting for Grace to explain who Dr. Sammler is…

"I'm glad you two have met." Grace smiles at Dr. Sammler and the blonde returns it. A bit confused by the sudden change in Katie's behavior. Katie had been glaring at Grace, as if waiting for the brunette to say something.

"We haven't." Katie says bluntly.

"Well, then let me introduce you to our new resident. Katie, meet Dr. Jessica Sammler, and Dr. Sammler, meet Katie Singer, one of our nurses." Grace says formally.

Jessie actually blushed with the introduction. Katie shifted her eyes confusingly between Grace and Jessie.

"It's the time when you're supposed to shake each other's hands." Grace raises an eyebrow as no one of the two made a move to do so. Jessie is still smiling at Katie, while the happy feeling Katie had felt a while ago turned into animosity. She looks at Grace, avoiding Jessie's blue eyes. When Jessie offered her hand, Katie merely looked at it, and ignored the blonde doctor totally…

"Sorry I took so long. I'm checking in." Katie says coldly. She walks away, leaving Grace and Jessie in confusion. Grace and Jessie exchanged looks, and Jessie watched as Katie disappeared from her view…

"What just happened?" Grace frowns.

"No idea…" Jessie shrugs… But she silently wished that she has. She couldn't seem to figure out what changed Katie's mood. They were getting along well until the lights went back on. It bothered her…

Sensing that Grace wouldn't be able to ease her confusion, and she has to go home anyway (after dropping by for a short meeting with the medical director), Jessie says goodbye to Grace…


	2. Complications

**CHAPTER 2 COMPLICATIONS**

Broward General Medical Center… For a change, Katie was filling in the morning shift which starts at 7 am and ends at 3 pm. Tad had just finished his shift, and had stayed a little while longer at the ER saying goodbye to his bestfriend, rather, trying to get Grace's attention. The resident-on-duty, Dr. Charles Murray, was missing in action, to Katie's annoyance. That resident had never been so reliable since he started working at Broward; she had complained about it once and the said doctor only managed to change for a day, then came back to his old ways…

_Old habits die hard… _Katie shakes her head. She's busy scribbling notes on a patient's chart, her mind, which was momentarily blank, starts wandering that time she got stuck in the elevator with Jessica Sammler… She pauses, and after a while, finally feels as if somebody's watching her. When she looks up, she finds that dazzling smile being directed at her way again…

_Ignore her… _Katie lets out a deep breath, and forces her eyes back down to what she's writing. It isn't easy; Jessie's blue eyes are just so tempting to look at…

"Hi." Jessie greets her, and as expected, Katie ignored her. When Katie didn't pay her even a bit of attention, Jessie stares down at her, watching her. But later couldn't stop herself from talking again.

"We got stuck in the elevator---" Thinking that Katie might have forgotten her, she tried to remind Katie, but Jessie was interrupted just before she could finish her sentence.

"I remember you." Katie replies without looking up. She pretends to be busy writing, when in fact, she's done scribbling notes on the patients' charts.

"Are you busy?" Jessie, despite noticing Katie's lack of enthusiasm, isn't about to give up.

"Yeah." It was Katie's short reply. Jessie silently wished that Katie would say something longer. She still wonders what happened, what changed Katie's behavior towards her. And she wished Katie would let her know.

"Oh, uhm… I was hoping that we could talk, if you have time, when you're free… You know, just hang out or something… I enjoyed our conversation." Jessie says sincerely. Katie pauses again, letting the blonde's beautiful words sink in… It almost made Katie smile, but remembering the fact about Jessie, she failed to do so…

"What are you doing here?" Katie finally looks up at Jessie, but upon meeting her blue eyes, looks away again. The crystal blue orbs make her feel so guilty for being a bitch, but she just can't help it. It's as if her mouth is doing it in automatic. She's normally nice, but Jessie's surname just keeps repeating in her head.

"I'm the resident-on-duty." Jessie isn't the type who takes crap from people, but despite Katie's not so pleasant attitude towards her now, she just can't seem to be mad at the dirty blonde for being this way.

"Where's Dr. Murray?" This time, Katie made sure to keep her eyes on the patients' charts. It's safe to look there; no pangs of guilt, no attraction…

"Uhm… I'm not sure why I have to explain, but, he left already. This is my shift." Jessie calms herself and tries her best not to get irritated.

The two fell in silence, this time, a not so good one. It was too awkward. The air is still filled with tension, but it wasn't as pleasant as before.

"Dr. Sammler, we have a patient. She's…" Grace trails off upon noticing the situation in front of her. Katie, looking a bit flushed in the cheeks, is obviously pretending to write something on a patient's chart, while, Jessie, looking too straight to be gay, was staring down at her. Even by standing about five feet away from them, Grace could feel the charged atmosphere… She shifts her eyes back and forth Jessie and Katie, before speaking again… Someone has to notice her or their patient will die…

"Dr. Sammler, the patient---"

"I heard you." Jessie says sharply, and finally tears her eyes away from Katie to attend to their patient. Grace rolls her eyes, and follows Jessie, but not without throwing a glare at Katie first.

The day went so awfully awkward and quiet. Katie tried to act her worst the whole time, while Jessie tried to be patient. Every time Katie snaps at her, she tries to think about that time they got stuck in the elevator, and that first time that she saw her… Always does the trick. But Jessie isn't sure how long she could take this treatment from Katie. She thought they could be friends, at least…

_Friends… _Jessie shakes her head. She's pretty sure, from the very outset, that it's not what she wants… She doesn't know Katie, she doesn't know a lot of things about the nurse, but she's ready to get to know her. And it feels like she does know her already. There's just this really weird feeling whenever Katie's near her…

On the other hand, while Julie spent almost the rest of the day making a career out of flirting with the new doctor, to Katie's utter annoyance, as she's aware that Julie is just using the blonde doctor to forget her recent break up, she found the two of them totally disgusting…

_Why is she even flirting with her?... _Katie sulks at her seat, discreetly throwing killer looks at Jessie and Julie's direction. The blonde doctor doesn't seem to mind having been hit on by Katie's co-nurse. In fact, Jessie seems to be enjoying it too much…

Meanwhile, Grace sat not so far away, watching the entertainment unfolding in front of her, then shakes her head, and giggles. Katie seemed to have heard her, and throws her a glare, but Grace returns a playful grin…

After their shift, Katie went straight home, to her tenth floor apartment. After taking a quick shower, she stayed in her bedroom, jumping into her clothes. She's planning to go out, ease her mind, clear her head… The beach sounds good. But before she could pick up her car keys, she heard footsteps, making her heart pound more than ever… Thinking an intruder had managed to break into her apartment, she tried to find something, a weapon, and found her old baseball bat. She holds on tight to it, lifting it up in the air, ready to strike any time… Beads of sweat dropped from her forehead. Katie walks slowly to her bedroom door, as the footsteps sounded nearer and nearer…

The door knob turned, and the door opened. Katie motioned for one strong hit, then screams echoed all over the room…

"Aaaahhhhh!" Screams of two different people echoed the room. Katie jumps back, and notices Grace ducking on the floor, with both hands covering her head…

"Holy shit, Katie, what the hell?!"

"What's wrong with you?!" Katie screams, holding her chest and still holding the baseball bat in her hands…

"Are you trying to kill me?! Put that down!" Grace points to the baseball bat, and finally, Katie lets it fall down the floor…

"You scared the daylights out of me!" Katie was still screaming.

"You scared the shit out of me too, Singer! You could have killed me with that!" Grace points to the baseball bat again, which was now rolling back and forth on the floor.

"Why are you screaming?!"

"Why are you?!"

It took both of them a few minutes before being able to catch up with their breaths… Grace slumps on the bed…

"Were you really going to kill me?" Grace asks, but instead of answering, Katie throws her a question in return.

"Were you insane? You should have knocked." Katie rolls her eyes, then walks to the mirror not so far away from her. Grace watched her.

"Where's Tad?" Grace slightly blushes after asking, and Katie turns to face her with that playful smile on her face.

"So, you came here to ask me about Tad? You could have just called him, you know…" Katie winks at her. She still couldn't believe how clueless or stupid both her friends are. They both like each other, yet no one was doing any move to let the other know.

"Actually, no…" Grace falls quiet. Katie shrugs, obviously not believing the brunette. Then Grace continues.

"Are you punishing Dr. Sammler because she's your cheating ex-fiance's sister?" The question caught Katie off-guard… She had never told anyone except Tad…

"How did you know?" Katie's eyes remained glued on Grace. Grace rolls her eyes.

"I'm not stupid, Katie. Jessie is a Sammler. You hate her for no reason. I put two and two together, did some research, and fell to one conclusion. Then to confirm, I asked her if she knew Eli. She looked shocked at first, and asked me why I knew Eli, and told her I met him somewhere before. She admitted that, in fact, Eli is her older brother."

"I can't believe this. You told her about Eli? She doesn't know anything about me and Eli." Katie raises her voice.

"Relax, I didn't tell her anything. And besides, if I did, so what? Isn't she supposed to know everything that went on between Eli and you already?" Grace frowns at Katie, who she thought was acting really weird. Katie sighs.

"She and Eli severed their ties a long time ago. Jessie doesn't know anything, and she doesn't have to know. Clear?" Katie growls at Grace.

"Fine, but don't give me that look. I'm not the enemy here." Grace chastises Katie. Katie falls into silence, thinking for a while. Then she focuses her attention back to Grace.

"I'm not punishing Dr. Sammler." Katie whispers.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"What are you talking about?" Katie sounds irritated.

"Everytime she tries to talk to you, you either glower at her, or simply ignore her. That's really rude." Grace informs Katie of her observations.

"Why do you care about her so much? Do you like her? Are you and Julie in some kind of a competition here?" Katie raises her voice again, to Grace's amusement. Katie sounds jealous alright. She almost grinned, if she didn't notice that killer looks Katie was giving her. Knowing Katie, the dirty blonde would pick up that baseball bat again and hack her in the head the moment she grins.

"Just because I'm asking doesn't mean I'm interested. Katie, you know you're being unreasonable, not to mention, really unfair. You can't treat her like that." Grace says calmly.

"Grace, don't waste my time."

"Forget about Eli."

"This isn't about Eli." Katie says in exasperation. Why does everyone think this has something to do with Eli?

"I'm your friend, alright? So let's drop all the pretensions."

"Exactly, you're my friend, so why won't you believe me?" Katie looks Grace straight to the eye. Grace holds her gaze, and Katie continued. "Eli's sister or not, I'll never like Jessie. She's selfish and insensitive. She renounced her parents. Don't you realize how serious is that?" Katie glares at Grace in disbelief.

"And you've known her for how long? You know nothing about her, Katie."

"Eli told me the kind of person that she was."

"WAS, past tense… He probably doesn't know his sister anymore. And you actually believed him? He's a cheater, Katie. He cheated on you on your wedding day, remember?"

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean he cheats on everything!" Katie is infuriated now. She isn't sure why she's defending Eli, the only person who broke her heart. She isn't even sure what her real stand is. She just wants to win this argument with Grace.

Katie calms herself, then she lets out a deep breath…

"I don't see any reason why Eli would lie to me about his sister. Grace, I don't like Jessie, and please, don't force me to. She couldn't respect her parents and family, so how could she have respect for others?" Katie sighs.

DAYS LATER…

It was a weird day, for there were only a few patients being brought in, and more are being checked out. Jessie thinks she should be glad, for people are seemingly fighting disease and accidents today, but her spirit is feeling otherwise. It would have been so easy to be happy, only that sitting across a stoic Katie is making her feel sad and angry...

_What did I do to you to make you hate me?... _The thought brought a sting of pain in her heart. Working with Katie everyday is not making it easier. Whoever decked their schedules is not helping either. 'Coz Katie is always on duty when she's on duty. Whenever she feels so down, she her mind only has to wander back to that night she got stuck in the elevator, and she will be fine again... Jessie is pretty much aware of the power Katie has on her...

_You really are something... _Jessie shakes her head. She never really thought of taking relationships seriously before, not like she's with any kind of relationship with Katie now. They barely have one. They're not even friends. It has been weeks and the dirty blonde finds it so hard to pay any attention to her.

Well, Jessie did go out on dates, had a few girlfriends here and there, but she's more into her career, and ex-girlfriends never really understood it. Most of them wanted to take their relationship to the next level, but Jessie had never been ready... She never thought she would be ready... But crazy ideas never stopped invading her head since she first saw Katie, that night in December...

"You really are something..." Jessie didn't realize she had repeated the sentence loud enough for someone to hear this time.

"I am a lot of things..." Julie's playfully seductive voice came from Jessie's side. Jessie politely smiles at her, hiding her embarrassment.

"Oh... Uhm... Sorry..." Jessie picks up a medical journal resting on the table provided for her and pretends to read an article. She could have just gone back to her office and wait for someone to call her, but her feet just wouldn't let her go away... For some Katie's reasons, apparently... Julie watched her with interest, and moves closer, in an almost teasing way...

But remember, Julie is just doing this for fun, nothing serious or personal...

"Talking to yourself, Jessie? I can call you Jessie, right?" Julie grins at Jessie, and Jessie slightly blushes. She's aware that Julie is normally playful and teasing, and that she shouldn't take the nurse seriously. This would have been fun, if Jessie didn't feel so embarrassed...

Katie, who was busy filling out information at the emergency room logbook at the other side of the room, overhears Julie, and an eyebrow automatically shots up in the air. She throws a brief look at Julie and Jessie's direction, to find the doctor being mobbed by her crazy friend...

_Pushing your luck, Julie?... _Katie's face dangerously forms a frown. She focuses back on to her work, before her feet make a mind of its own and decides to cross the other side and pull Julie's hair for being stupidly flirty. Katie isn't sure why this scene is making her tick. It just ticks her, that's all.

"Yeah, Jessie would be fine." Jessie smiles at Julie again. Then, she really focuses her attention on the medical journal this time. This isn't the perfect time and place to flirt… Then something slammed into her table that made her and Julie jump…

When she looked up, Katie was looking down at her, giving her that cold look again. Katie walked away, making Jessie realize that it was the emergency logbook that she has to sign, that Katie slammed down in front of her on the table… Katie had left the emergency room to get some coffee. The lack of patients is making her sleepy, when Julie and Jessie exchanged looks… The curiosity is killing her, and Jessie couldn't keep it anymore, that finally, she asks…

"Is she mad at me?" Jessie frowns.

"I was going to ask you the same thing… Since you came into this hospital, I rarely see Katie smile. And, she's apparently rude towards you… What's up?" Julie asks curiously.

"If I knew, I wouldn't have asked." Jessie sighs in defeat… It wouldn't be easy cracking into Katie Singer's shell.

Pause… Jessie didn't realize Julie staring at her.

"You know what? You look like someone…" Julie ponders for a while.

"Who, Evan Rachel Wood?" Jessie jokes. Julie giggles. Things are easier at the ER with Julie and Grace, and sometimes Tad, when they are around. Katie never spoke to her, not one word… Except at times when they really have to say something to each other, at times of real emergencies…

"Hmm… Not what I had in mind, but since you mentioned it, yeah I noticed now that you do look like her… But I was referring to someone else." Julie looks as if she had solved the hardest problem in the world. "I've been thinking about it for days, and I can't believe it I actually didn't realize it soon." Julie grins.

"Really? Who do I look like?"

"Katie's fiancé." Julie says casually. Jessie almost dropped the medical journal in her hands, and her head snaps at Julie's direction. Julie barely noticed the dread in Jessie's eyes.

"Katie's getting married?" Jessie could feel her stomach making a 360 degree spin over and over again.

"Oops, wrong term… Ex-fiance, I mean." Julie smiles.

"You mean, she's not getting married?" Jessie's nauseating feeling slightly subsided.

"It was supposed to be last year, but then the wedding didn't happen." Julie shrugs. Jessie focuses her eyes on Julie, with so much curiosity.

"What happened?" Jessie tried not to sound too interested.

"She boycott her own wedding." Julie sounded unbelieving. The nurse did believe at one point that Katie and Eli were meant for each other.

"Why?" Jessie was confused, but relieved…

"The guy cheated on her on her wedding day."

"He's stupid…" Jessie shakes her head.

"He almost destroyed Katie. Katie was devastated for months. She loved him, you know. I just couldn't seem to figure out why someone would do that to her, but then that guy was never my favorite person anyway. I warned Katie, I've always had these bad vibes about Eli, but she never listened to me."

"ELI?" Jessie's voice almost broke. There are a lot of Eli's in America, right?

"Yeah… If I don't know any better, I would actually think that scheming son of a bitch is your brother." Julie laughs.

Pause…

"Unfortunately, that scheming son of a bitch IS my older brother…" Jessie stares in space, sitting in awe… Julie blushes in embarrassment…

"Oh, I'm… I thought you're an only daughter?" Julie could clearly remember when Jessie told her that. They were having coffee that morning at Starbucks… She wasn't hearing things, right?

"Yeah… And he's an only son…"

HOURS LATER… Katie finds Grace and Hanna, another nurse on duty, arguing. Julie was nowhere to be found, so was Jessie… She had a strong urge to ask Grace where the two had gone, for she has really bad suspicions where they are, but decided against it…

_Grace would go on accusing me of things if I do so… _Katie then ignored the urge, and proceeded to mediate between Grace and Hanna's argument instead…

"Come on guys, break it up, you're adults." Katie jokes.

"Grace thinks I'm in love with John Martin." Hanna rolls her eyes. Grace laughs.

"Hanna, you're blushing."

"I am not in love with him. I just like him, that's all." Hanna says defensively. Katie, meanwhile, only finds this childish argument amusing.

"You are, I can see the love dancing in your eyes." Grace couldn't stop laughing. Katie rolls her eyes.

"Gosh, Grace, how original. Can you think of anything crazier?"

"Love at first sight doesn't exist." Hanna says firmly.

"I think it does." Katie unconsciously involves herself in the debate currently going on. Grace and Hanna turn to look at her with baffled look on their faces.

"How could you say that?" Hanna asks.

"I don't have to justify the things that I believe in." Katie says incredulously.

"How can you believe on something you haven't experienced? Or have you?" Grace narrows her eyes on her. The love-at-first-sight-thing was just a joke to piss of Hanna.

"Forget it."

"Tell me, Katie, how could you fall in love with someone you've only seen once? I don't think there's any feeling there. If there is, it would be mere physical attraction." Hanna says.

"True, but falling in love is not just getting to know someone and feel the love. I can't explain it, it extends beyond words." Katie replies. Grace eyes her in interest.

"I still don't get it." Grace crosses her arms.

"What I'm saying is, you don't need to see the person everyday to fall in love with him or her. You don't need to talk to each other every minute, and you don't need to know everything. The person meant for you will steal your heart the first and the second, and the thousandth time you see him or her, and you won't even know it… You'll just fall, and before you realize it, it would be too late… You're falling in love at first sight with your soulmate…" Katie smiles, losing herself in a trance, her mind wandering back to December… But she breaks her own reverie and focuses back in the real world…

Grace was looking at her in astonishment, while Hanna was smiling at her in disbelief…

"I've never seen that sensitive side of you before…" Hanna jokes.

"I didn't even realize you actually have a sensitive side. Love at first sight and soulmates? That's really far-fetched, Singer, you're making me laugh." Grace isn't joking.

"I didn't ask you to believe what I believe in." Katie smiles.

Just then, Jessie walks towards them, handing the logbook back to Katie. The three fell in silence. Grace and Hanna dispersed, leaving Katie with Jessie.

"Fill in the---"

"I know what to do. Thanks." Katie rudely interrupts Jessie from finishing her sentence, and almost walks away, but Jessie grabs her by the hand. The contact sent some sort of white hot fire all through every vein in her body… Katie pulled her hand back.

"Tell me the truth, Katie, why do you hate me?" Jessie asks seriously. Katie was astounded by the question.

"I don't hate you…"

"You do."

"Look, if you don't want to believe me, then don't ask questions." Katie said irritatedly.

"Just cut the crap, alright?" Jessie looks and sounds annoyed. Katie never imagined Jessie like this… She looked so gentle… "Just say it to my face, straight to the point. We were getting along fine until you found out who I was."

"I don't have to listen to this." Katie snarls at Jessie and walks away again. Jessie grabs her by the arm this time, holding her tights. It hurt a bit, but Katie didn't complain. Her green eyes met Jessie's fierce ones…

"Tell me you hate me because I'm Eli's sister."

"You know about Eli?" Katie was suddenly scared, and worried…

"I never intended for my brother to hurt you."

"Don't talk about something you know nothing about…" For a moment, Katie felt sympathetic towards Jessie, she saw the grief in the blonde's eyes. But she ignored the feeling later.

"All I know is I had nothing to do with it."

"I didn't say that."

"You don't have to say the words to let me know. I'm not stupid."

"What's your problem?" Katie is really starting to get impatient.

"You. You are the problem."

"I can't believe I'm listening to this non-sense."

"You know what doesn't make sense? You, punishing me for my brother's idiocy." Jessie is really angry.

"Leave Eli out of this." Katie was getting mad as well.

"You left him on your wedding day, and now you're defending him?" Jessie replies with mock incredulity.

"I am not defending anyone!" Katie yells indignantly. How could Jessie accuse her of that?

"That's bullshit."

"Don't curse." Katie warns Jessie.

"BULL… SHIT…" Jessie emphasized syllable even more, touching a nerve…

"Drop the trash talk!" Katie screams. Grace, who was positioned herself as far as she could from the screaming Jessie and Katie, almost dropped the IV kits she was moving… She shakes her head…

"If my brother hurt you, don't inflict your pain on me." Jessie could feel her jaw tightening.

"I didn't do anything wrong to you."

"But you loathe me. Admit it, Katie, you detest every single minute that we had to work together. You can't bear the sight of me, and you abhor having to deal with me every damn day you had to perform your duty. You despise everything about me, all because I'm Eli's sister…" Both Jessie and Katie fell into an eerie silence for a while…

"Why are you wasting your time on this?" Katie asks…

"What?"

"So what if you said is true? So what if I hate you? Why would you care? Why would it bother you? Why would you waste your time trying to find out why? I'm just Katie Singer…"

Jessie looks at her in the eyes…

"You know what? Some things are better left unsaid…"

"I'm sorry…"

"Don't say that. When I walk away, everything will be the same. We'll be working together and you'll be acting like I don't exist. We're never gonna be on speaking terms, we're never gonna be friends, and never gonna have anything much more. So why say sorry? It's a waste of time." Jessie turns around and made steps away. But stops after a few. She speaks again, without turning to look at Katie.

"That night in December, when I first saw you, when I felt everyone in the world was against me and I wanted to die… You saved my life… But now, I wished you didn't…"

Jessie resumed walking, and stayed as far away from Katie for the rest of the day… Katie didn't realize that tears actually made it's way down her cheek, from her eyes… Hastily, she wiped it, before someone could see…


	3. Missions

**CHAPTER 3 MISSIONS**

Things had never been this awkward at the Emergency Room of Broward. Katie and Jessie weren't the only ones who could feel it. Even those who don't know what's going on between the two could feel the tension between them, whenever the two of them are around. Gossips went around, but neither Jessie nor Katie discussed it. Katie merely scowls on Grace before the brunette could even ask.

But Grace and Tad aren't numb. Katie is deeply affected by Jessie's presence, but as to what context, they are still yet to find out.

It had been a month. Katie and Jessie barely spoke to each other. They threw occasional glances, often ending up with the two of them catching each other looking. Katie isn't so happy everytime Julie had to do the shift with her 'coz she wouldn't stop flirting with Jessie… And worse? Jessie flirts back…

_Not that I care. You really are Eli's sister… _Katie huffs everytime that happens.

Katie woke from her stupor upon the ringing of her celphone. She wasn't intending to answer it, knowing it was Tad calling her for the umpteenth time that day. She had just finished packing, and was very ready to go to the Amazonian Rainforest Region of Ecuador with Tad, Grace, Hanna, and unfortunately, some other individuals, a blonde doctor in particular (with some other doctors and nurses from the other units). Their hospital is sponsoring the medical mission to the said island, and, in this case, they will be visiting the Achuar Tribe. It was an opportunity, for Katie had always wanted to help people. But having to spend a few days with Jessie at the same time is just…

Katie sighs. She couldn't even describe how she feels. It's a mixture of everything. She has no idea why she's so pissed everytime she sees Julie's face too close to Jessie's, and at the same time, she couldn't care less.

_They could ravage each other in front of me, and I wouldn't even care… _Katie tells herself furiously, and plasters an arrogant look on her face. She's ready to go to this mission, with or without Jessie. She wondered why the doctor even agreed to come along without Julie. They seem to be getting closer and closer lately. Katie was fuming…

_Calm down, Katie… _Katie lets out a deep breath, and then picks up her bags, and heads downstairs, assuming Tad and Grace are already waiting for her. She guessed right.

"This is so exciting." Tad grins. He's currently driving his car, with Grace at the front seat, and an eerily quiet Katie at the back.

"Yeah, I couldn't wait to get there." Grace plasters a wide smile of her own.

"Tree houses, canoes, rainforest… How cool is that?" Tad drums his fingers on the steering wheel.

"Too bad Julie couldn't come." Grace knew how much Julie wanted to go, but she wasn't chosen to go. Katie rolls her eyes.

"Maybe she isn't that good." Katie snorts. Tad glances at her from the rear view mirror, then he exchanged looks with Grace.

"Said the 'perfect Singer'." Grace jokes.

"I didn't say I'm perfect." Katie growls at Grace.

"What's wrong with you?" Grace frowns at Katie. Katie shrugs.

"Nothing."

"You know, if you didn't want to go, you should have said something. Other people would love to be in your position." Tad says as a matter of fact.

"I didn't say that I don't want to go either." Katie says stubbornly.

"You are acting really weird, you know that?" Grace shakes her head. Katie's acting like a child, again. That has been happening a lot lately. She wasn't used to it. It would have been normal, if it was Tad.

"Tad, can you drive faster?" Katie changes the topic.

"Relax. We're here." Tad pulls over the parking area at the airport. He leaves for a while to pay for the few days parking fee, and gets back to help the girls with their luggage. The walk to inside the airport was fairly pleasant, on Tad's and Grace's part anyway. They were constantly flirting, with Katie sulking behind them. She hates being stuck between these too.

When they found their co-workers, they looked all so enthusiastic about this mission. Katie's eyes wandered, searching unconsciously for that one, cute blonde… And her eyes fall on Jessie, who seems just as excited as everyone. And she was talking, or can I say, flirting? With Hanna…

_Right… _Katie stared for a while. Jessie is laughing with Hanna, and Katie, from where she stood, mocks the nurse who looks so giddy just standing in front of the doctor. Then, Katie looks away. The scene of those two is making her want to puke. It didn't take long before they were called in for their flight…

Ten minutes into the flight… Tad and Grace are sitting side by side, while on the other side of the plane, Katie is sitting with another male nurse named Darien. The said nurse is busy listening to music with the headphones, and Katie tried to do the same thing. Only that she couldn't focus. She could clearly hear the conversation going on just behind her, and could strongly feel the blonde's presence…

"Have you always wanted to be a doctor?" Hanna asked Jessie. Jessie smiles, and looks back at Hanna's chestnut brown eyes. She loves talking to Hanna. At least the brunette helps her divert her attention away from a certain dirty blonde. The past few days had been hard. And she's glad that she was able to develop friendships at the ER. Otherwise, she would have resigned right away. But a part of her just couldn't bear the thought of not seeing Katie anymore…

"Yeah… It's my lifelong dream."

"You must be very happy…"

"I couldn't really say that…" Jessie sighs. "You couldn't really be happy even though you have everything that you want, if you couldn't share it with a special someone…" Jessie says thoughtfully. In front of her, Katie closely listened…

"I agree with you…" Hanna smiles.

"Do you have someone?" Jessie asks playfully. Hanna grins at her.

"Someone special, you mean?"

"Yeah." Jessie nods.

"And why do you ask?" Hanna jokes. Jessie chuckles.

"I don't know, can you tell me?" Jessie says in the most seductive tone, and moves closer to Hanna. Hanna stares at her.

"Wow…" Hanna utters in disbelief. Jessie has no idea what Hanna was wowing about.

"What?" Jessie smiles.

"You have beautiful eyes… They smile everytime you smile…" Hanna whispers… Jessie moves closer.

"Really? You have beautiful eyes too…" Jessie moves closer again. But, just before she could finish what she had originally planned, a deep female voice made her and Hanna jump away from each other.

"Some people are trying to sleep, you know." Katie growls at the two, as she kneeled on her seat, staring furiously at Jessie, and barely paying attention to Hanna. Hanna was surprised, but the incident almost made her laugh. Meanwhile, Jessie was blushing deep red on her seat, staring up at Katie.

"Uhm… Sorry…" Jessie apologizes. Katie remains staring.

"But if you two couldn't help it, then just get it over with. But try not to disturb anyone." Katie shots Jessie another warning look, and gets back to her seat. Jessie was unmoved for a few moments, before she was able to smile sheepishly at Hanna. At the other side of the plane, Tad and Grace, who are now holding hands, was shocked upon seeing what Katie did. And they exchanged meaningful looks.

Jessie and Hanna did not talk again all the way to Ecuador.

Upon reaching Ecuador, they took a canoe ride to reach the Kapawi Ecolodge at the center of the Amazonian Rainforest Region, and again, in silence.

It was all business for Katie and Jessie. Dr. Seely Masterson, the assigned head of this mission, then relayed their assignments before they settled into the lodgings provided for them. They had agreed to meet again after an hour to proceed to setting up their equipments, and proceed with what they intended to do.

"Okay, Tad and Joan, you're joining me. Hanna and Darien, you're assisting Dr. Jane Staunton. Ivan and Grace, you're assisting Dr. Marcus Keller. And Katie and Marianne, you're assisting Dr. Jessica Sammler."

"What?" Katie didn't realize she said it out loud.

"You were saying something, Ms. Singer?" Dr. Masterson, who is usually a serious person, focused his steely eyes on Katie. Katie looked a bit flustered, and shakes her head.

"Nothing, sir."

"Good. You can go get settled then. This is a small community, so don't expect luxury. We have to pair up in rooms. A tribe member will bring us to the lodging that they provided for us."

Just then, a member of the Achuar tribe talked to Dr. Masterson, and the next thing they knew, they were being led to a certain part of the forest… When Katie looked up, she saw the tree houses...

"Just what I expected." Tad grins.

"Okay, we'll meet up after an hour at the small community hall a few feet walk away from here. Just follow the trail ahead and you won't miss it. I will be sharing the room with Dr. Staunton, so, it's up to you to pair up." Dr. Masterson, looking really tired, then headed to one of the tree houses with his female colleague. Katie turned her head to Tad's direction, and found him holding hands with Grace.

_Great, guess that means she's sharing with Grace… _Katie then turns to Marianne, who is then climbing up the steps to another tree house with Dr. Keller. _Yeah, I forgot the rumor that they are dating… _Katie's eyes searched for someone to share the tree house again. Her eyes fell on Joan, who's heading to another tree house with Hanna… Katie frowns. _Why isn't she sharing with Jessie?... _But before Katie could find her answer, she realized it was only her and Jessie left on the ground. Ivan and Darien must have gone to share a tree house also, leaving Katie no choice. Jessie doesn't look excited either, but the blonde is already climbing the stairs up to the last available one.

Looks like Katie had no choice. Stay on the ground, or follow the doctor. Katie sighs… This is going to be one hell of a medical trip. The tree house is pretty small. You couldn't even call it a room. If they lie on the floor to sleep on the different sides of the room, it would be hard not to have an accidental contact with each other. Katie is aware that she's not very still when she sleeps. She sighs again…

Jessie and Katie barely paid attention to each other the whole hour. Both had changed into some new clothes, with their back turned on each other. Jessie was tempted to look, but resisted the temptation. It wouldn't do her any good. And besides, she had promised herself to ignore Katie and not to waste time on the dirty blonde again. She's far too arrogant to deserve her attention.

_And she's my brother's ex… _Jessie sighs. It didn't escape Katie's ears, and the nurse wondered what Jessie was sighing about…

_Bummed that you're not sharing the room with Hanna?... _Katie thought sarcastically. Then she smiles. She isn't sure what the smile was for. She just felt happy…

x - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - x

So far, the medical mission was successful. A lot of the members of the tribe showed up. They weren't as old fashioned as Katie had thought. They were just not as into technology as the modern world. The tribe invited them for dinner, and of course, everybody is more than happy to accept their invitation. The tribe leader thanked them, and made a presentation of their culture, just for the medical team. Dr. Masterson seemed pleased.

On their way back to their tree houses, Tad and Grace are fooling around. Behind them was Katie, and even farther away from them were the other members of their team.

Grace sings.

"I was afraid this time would come, I wasn't prepared to face this kind of hurting from within, I have learned to live my life beside you, maybe I'll just dream of you tonight, and if into my dreams you'd come and touch me once again, I'll just keep on dreaming, 'til my heart aches end…" Grace sings dramatically, and Tad applauds her. Katie rolls her eyes.

"Yeah right, you'll die dreaming." Katie says sarcastically.

"Hey, it's just a song." Grace turns to Katie with a growl.

"'Til your heart aches end? Who's stupid enough to wait that long?" Katie says. Tad then turns to Katie, applauding her this time.

"What are you clapping about?" Katie frowns at him.

"I'm proud of you." Tad grins.

"Why?"

"You deserve an award." Tad jokes.

"What?"

"Best in Moving On award. You're right. Who's stupid enough to wait that long? I mean, you've only wasted a year pondering on your happy memories with Eli. It's not that long, right? So your heart will keep on bleeding everytime you think about how much of an asshole he is and how much pain he have caused you, but still, you have to keep on moving on instead of living in the past, right?" Tad states. Katie smiles, to both Grace and Tad's surprise.

"I wouldn't have seen that smile on your face if we were talking about this one year ago." Grace says.

"Time heals all wounds. My feelings for Jessie had changed." Katie replied, which made Tad and Grace stop and turn around to face Katie, both narrowing her eyes at her. Katie stops on her tracks, staring innocently at the two.

"What?" Tad and Grace asked in duet.

"What, what?" Katie frowns.

"You have feelings for Jessie?" Grace sounds suspicious.

"What are you talking about?"

"You said your feelings for Jessie had changed." Tad reminds her.

"I said Eli."

"Nope. You said Jessie, right Grace?" Tad turns to Grace, and Grace nods.

"Are you guys deaf?"

"Katie, you said JESSIE." Grace repeats firmly.

"No, I did not. And why would I say Jessie?" Katie says defensively.

"Maybe she's in your head." Tad winks at Katie, and Katie slightly blushes.

"Pervert." Katie scowls at Tad, and walks past by them. Tad and Grace exchanged looks again.

"What did I say?" Tad frowns.

Later that night, they set up bonfire before going to sleep, just below the tree houses. Dr. Keller pulled out some bottles of hard liquor he and Dr. Masterson had been hiding in their luggage. The team gathered, discussing the mission, and what their future plans might be. They discussed what was lacking in the area, and made some recommendations. Then they made a toast to their success.

While everybody was ecstatic with the results, Katie and Jessie had never been quieter. Emptying bottles, and then more, Dr. Masterson, who's usually uptight and serious, wanted to play a game.

"I don't know what this game is called, but I have this small piece of carton on my hand." Seely stupidly grins, obviously drunk himself.

"Ah, I know that game…" Marcus grins, and winks at Marianne on his side. The nurse just smiles sweetly at him.

"You just have to pass this carton, of course, just by using your mouth, sucking it so it wouldn't fall…" Seely laughs.

"Seely, I think you're being silly." Jane, the other doctor who's slightly drunk, slurs, then laughs. Katie rolls her eyes. These doctors are really drunk.

"So, we just have to pass it to the one beside us?" Ivan asks. Seely nods. Katie then turns to her right, assuming to find Tad, but finds a wide space beside her, then her eyes fall on Jessie, whom she caught was looking at her. Both looked away upon catching each other's eyes.

"You two, move closer." Seely points at Katie and Jessie. Neither made a move. Seely looks annoyed and gets up from his seat, walking around the bonfire and forces Jessie and Katie to move closer to each other. Both are furiously blushing.

_Where the hell are Tad and Grace?... _Katie barely noticed her friends leave the bonfire. Perhaps, she was too engrossed upon watching Dr. Masterson make a fool of himself. _And what was the game he was talking about again?... _Katie wondered.

But before Katie could ask Darien, who's sitting on her other side, what the game was about, Seely started passing the carton (sucking the other side of the carton), and passing it to Jane, who passes it to Marianne, who passes it to Marcus, who passes it to Joan, who passes it to Hanna, who passes it to Darien, and Katie's eyes widen…

_A kissing game?!... _And before Katie could panic, Darien turns to pass the carton to her. She sat frozen for a while, not knowing what to do, but later hears her team cheering on her. Katie then catches the carton, and turns to pass the carton to Jessie…

It's as if on slow motion, as Katie moved closer to Jessie. She saw Jessie's blue eyes moving closer, and then closer… And, at just five millimeters away, the carton slid off Katie's slips, and before she knew it, she was kissing Jessie…

Katie pulled back in surprise, and Jessie did the same thing. Both were blushing again. Katie couldn't have a coherent thought in her head… But the softness of Jessie's lips lingered in her head… She couldn't believe how it felt, as if a lightning struck her in the head and the electricity traveled through every single vein in her body… It was---

_Unbelievable… _Katie was momentarily out of breath. It wasn't a long kiss. Jessie wasn't even able to return it. _Or would she have?... _

x - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - x

Katie couldn't sleep. The kiss just wouldn't leave her head. Or was it even a kiss? It was one-sided, it wasn't even intended. She was lying on the mat on the floor of the tree house, her back turned on Jessie. She had been wanting to turn around, something inside her was stopping her. Unable to contain herself anymore, she turned, only to find an empty space beside her…

She wondered where Jessie had gone and how she managed to get down from the tree house without Katie feeling her move. Katie got up from bed…

Down from the tree house, Jessie was standing, staring at the bonfire which was still burning. Everybody had gone to sleep except her… Or at least she thought she was the only one…

She turned upon hearing the footsteps from behind her, and her eyes met a pair of green ones…

It was Katie… They stood in short silence, as they remained staring at each other… Jessie then turns around to go back to the tree house. No sense at staying here, now that Katie's here, when Katie stops her…

"I'm sorry…" Katie whispers…

"For what?"

"For everything… I'm sorry that things had to be like this…" Katie looks sincerely at the blonde. But the blonde's feelings is hard to read.

"I'm sorry that my brother's a jerk." Jessie says sarcastically.

"Jessie, I'm serious."

"You've apologized once. That's enough."

"But you didn't accept it."

"Should I?" Jessie says bluntly. Jessie's sarcasm is hurting Katie, but she knew she couldn't blame her… "You don't know the first thing about acceptance, so don't expect anything in return."

"I offended you…"

"I wasn't offended. I was HURT." Jessie emphasized.

"I know, that's why I'm sorry."

"Easy for you to say." Jessie huffs.

"You think this is easy for me?"

"Looks like it."

"Why are you being like this? I'm trying to apologize."

"Apologize and then what?" Jessie's eyes are piercing. "Why are you even talking to me?"

"I'm not sure…"

"Then forget it."

"Why are you so rude?" Katie is starting to get annoyed, but calms herself.

"Look Katie, I respect you, I really do. But I'm trying to move on, so try to respect that, alright?"

"Move on from what?" Katie could feel her heart beating faster than normal… _Move on from what?..._

"Ask yourself. Maybe in the tiniest corner of your heart, you might find the answer." Jessie slowly walks away past by Katie. But before climbing up the tree house, she turns around again…

"That night in December when I first saw you, I've never stopped dreaming that I would see you again. I came back everyday, hoping that we would cross our roads again… I didn't give up, I never wanted to… From the very start, I'm sure that all I wanted was to be with you… But you know what? Finally having you close to me means shattering my heart into pieces… Now I keep on wishing that I never met you… You would have been better as a distant memory…" Tears formed in Jessie's eyes. Katie felt the urge to touch her face and wipe the tears, but she resisted.

"You're never meant to be mine…" Katie didn't expect that these words from Jessie would hit her like a ball of fire. Jessie looks at Katie one last time, then climbs up the tree house…

Katie stood in silence, and bit by bit, she felt her own tears running down from her eyes…


	4. Confrontations

**A/N: BOBO, I wish you would continue writing. But I do understand the writer's block. I'm having a lot of that myself. Anyway, I'll have this chapter dedicated for you, hoping you would be inspired to write an update some time soon… **

**CHAPTER 4 CONFRONTATIONS**

_She looks peaceful… It isn't easy to see in the dark, but the dim light emanated by the full moon in the open window made it possible for the other to make out the features of her face: her long eye-lashes, the perfect contours of her nose, the tempting shape of her lips, and her long blonde hair radiates in the moonlight… The other wished she could see her eyes, but when the other couldn't, she simply imagined those pair of crystal blue orbs, looking back at her, smiling at her… _

"Jessie…" Katie suddenly awakes, and realized she had fallen asleep on the long bench in front of her locker. She just checked out after working the morning shift and was really tired. She closed her eyes… She hadn't seen 'her' today… Just like in the last seven days…

_Where are you?..._

"Wrong locker room." A voice made Katie almost jump out of her skin. She wasn't expecting any company inside the locker room.

"Tad." Katie says without enthusiasm. Tad was putting some of his things into his locker.

"I believe her locker is in the other room." Tad grins at Katie and winks at her. Katie sighs.

"What are you talking about?" Katie growls at him, feigning innocence. It's not like Tad couldn't see through her, but it's worth a try. Tad shakes his head in amusement.

"You've been calling her name in the past few days, and I'm beginning to suspect that you and I are now batting for the same team. I'm shocked. But I don't have any problem with that. I don't think it would be healthy for you to repress such feelings though." Tad had been reassigned from the ER to the psych ward, and Katie thought the job was getting to him. She rolls her eyes.

"What are you talking about?" Katie repeats.

"You know, I didn't want to say anything at first… But you did call out Jessie's name a few times this week. And she wasn't even here." Tad raises an eyebrow at her. Katie looks a bit flustered for a bit, but regains her composure. Tad locks his locker again.

"I didn't."

"You called Grace 'Jessie'." Tad says firmly to remind her as he faces her.

"That's a lie."

"You called ME Jessie. And then when I drove you home the other night, you fell asleep on my car and you called Jessie… What's up with that?" Tad looks suspiciously at Katie. He could vividly remember when Katie fell asleep on the front seat and started dreaming… His bestfriend uttered Jessie's name more than five times…

"I'm not batting for the same team. I'm straight." Katie sulks, and crosses her arms. She then gets up from the bench and stares at Tad. Tad studies her face for a while.

"Stop giving me any ideas and stop calling her name then." Tad says in a tone as if she's challenging Katie to do the hardest thing. Katie smiles.

"Fine. I will never say 'Jessie' again."

"You just said it." Tad points out.

"What? That doesn't count!"

"But you're thinking about her, admit it." Tad grins.

"I'm not thinking about Jessie!" Katie wails at Tad. Tad grins wider.

"There you go again."

"Stop trying to get into my nerves, Pincus." Katie glowers at her bestfriend.

"I already am." Tad laughs and walks out of the locker room with Katie marching after him.

"You are so…" Katie trails off, thinking of the right word but couldn't think of anything…

"Don't say it Katie, you need me." Tad taunts her, unworried. Katie, unfortunately, crashed her car on their first day back from Ecuador and has to take a ride with Tad everyday until she gets her car back. She didn't suffer any serious injuries, just a few scratches which was a miracle. Tad was damn worried about her. Katie wasn't even drinking that night, nor was she in the influence of anything else. She was sober, supposedly coherent, but reportedly out-of-focus that night. He wondered what was bothering Katie, she hadn't be so happy in the past few days, but his bestfriend just wouldn't tell him…

"You're so gonna pay for this."

"I know, but you'll be the one paying for now." Tad reaches the parking area and finds his car. He opens his side of the door and Katie opens the other side. They jumped in…

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" Katie narrows her eyes on Tad.

"Just relax." Tad starts his car and drives away. The two of them, as usual, is having a nice conversation about how did their day go, the latest episode of Heroes, and the gossips at the hospital. It was after almost twenty minutes of driving that Katie realized they weren't passing the same route as they do everyday.

Tad steers the car into a new subdivision in Fort Lauderdale: The Dream Neighborhood… Katie's jaw drops as they passed through the newly built houses. Many people are scattered around, checking each one of them. She then reads a sign…

'OPEN HOUSE'…

"Are you going to buy a house?" Katie turns to Tad, smiling.

"Well, I do want to have a family someday." Tad smiles, all the while thinking about Grace… Katie noticed the way her friend smiles, but decided not to taunt him about it.

"It's nice Tad, but I am not buying any house any time soon."

"Come on, Katie. We'll just check it out." The two got off the car and started going over the houses then. The squeezed themselves into the crowd of people to look at the houses. Every house is a two-storey, though it varies in sizes and colors.

They started checking out each of the houses, with Tad always enthusiastic about every one of them. Katie merely crosses her arms, and rolls her eyes occasionally. Tad does look silly like this. She never thought of him as a family man ever. Though it impressed her that he thinks about his future seriously…

Katie and Tad goes over the seventh house, and Katie stops abruptly in front of it, rear-ending Tad. With them having the same height, Tad hits his nose at the back of Katie's head.

"Aww. Don't you know it's dangerous to make a stop in the middle of a crowded street?" Tad frowns, while rubbing his nose.

"Don't you know it's dangerous to tailgate?" Katie says, then heads immediately to the two-storey, peach house, with a wide front lawn, a cozy porch, and nice oak doors. When they came in, they realized the house was fully furnished. There were potential buyers inside the house already, looking around, just like them. Katie stares in awe. They reached the one of the three bedrooms. Katie stares in admiration. The room was dimly lit in incandescent light, the ceiling was low and the floor, made of expensive wood. The bed was white and fluffy.

"Just what I've always wanted…" Katie couldn't believe it, forgetting for a while that it was Tad who was interested in buying a house and not her.

"What, the bed?" Tad frowns.

"No, the warmth…" Katie loves the feel of this house. It feels so homey.

"I think it's nice." The sweet female voice made Tad and Katie turn around simultaneously.

"I think so too. I think I'll buy it." The other so-familiar voice made Katie raise an eyebrow… Jessie is standing by the bedroom door, with Julie by her side. It was only then that Jessie and Julie realized the two people staring at them.

"Hi Tad, hi Katie." Julie smiles at them. Tad smiles back. Katie maintains a stoic face.

"Hey, Jules. Good afternoon, Dr. Sammler." Tad greets.

"Please call me Jessie." Jessie smiles at Tad. The four then fall into a very unpleasant silence. Tad clears his throat.

"Uh… Any one of you buying a house?" Tad asks.

"Yeah, Jessie is." Says Julie.

"I love this house. It's perfect. I'm buying it." Jessie smiles.

"Hey, I found it first." Katie says warningly. Jessie turns her head at her direction, the same with Tad and Julie.

"So?"

"This house is mine." Katie says firmly. Tad frowns at her.

"You're going to buy the house?" Tad asks in disbelief.

"Yeah." Katie says without looking at Tad, but glaring at Jessie.

"I've been touring the house for thirty minutes, so technically, I was here first." Jessie informs Katie.

"Got any proof?" Katie crosses her arms.

"Do you want to fight over it? We can bid on it." Jessie says almost arrogantly. Tad and Julie watched in amusement.

"Just because you own the whole Utah, doesn't intimidate me." Katie retorts with a metaphor. Of course Jessie doesn't own Utah, just a considerably big part of it… They own the biggest estate there.

"I WILL BUY IT." Jessie says firmly.

"I WILL TOO." Katie replies.

"Do you really have to fight over this? There are so many other houses, you can't---" Julie was interrupted.

"This is my dream house." Jessie says.

"I dreamed it first. I'm older than you." Katie replies which almost made Tad laugh.

"What makes this house special to have you two fight over it?" Tad asks.

"Warmth." Jessie and Katie answered in duet. Then they glare at each other.

"If you want the house so bad, why don't you share it?" Tad suggests. Jessie and Katie glower at him.

"Share it? If we divide it, it wouldn't be the same. I wouldn't like it." Jessie says in disbelief, thinking of how silly Tad is.

"Well, there's an easier alternative. You can both buy it and get married. Everybody wins. No arguments. Case closed. Katie keeps calling your name anyway." Tad slips, then feels a pair of eyes burning him alive. When her turns at Katie's direction, his bestfriend is burning deep red.

"Whoops… Got to go. See you at the hospital!" Tad runs out of the house before Katie could even catch him. Jessie and Julie followed them with amused looks on their faces…

Tad runs to his car for his life. Just before he could lock himself in, Katie jumps into the front seat beside him and hits him on his right arm.

"I can't believe you said that!" Katie hits him again. Tad rubs his arm.

"The look on your face was priceless!" Tad laughs. Katie was so annoyed.

"I thought you're my bestfriend. Now I'm not so sure." Katie slouched on her seat and crosses her arms, and pouts like a child. Tad watches her for a while…

"You're in love with her aren't you?"

"What?! You're this close to having your arm amputated, Tad." Katie motions an inch with her right thumb and index finger.

"You are…"

"No one's in love with anyone, Tad… Now drop it…"

"You are so stubborn sometimes…"

"Shut up Tad…"

_She never even wanted a house… _Tad shakes his head. Katie did say that she's not buying any house, any time soon… And she had to fight with Jessie over this house…

They didn't talk all the way to Katie's apartment building. She said goodbye and goodnight, and heads to her door. Her apartment seemed quieter when she came in. It felt so lonely. Katie couldn't sleep right away, so she tried to keep herself occupied. She baked, she watched tv, she played music… And finally, she fell asleep. Only to get awakened by the loud ringing of her telephone at 4 in the morning…

"Hello…" Katie rubs her eyes. She glances at her digital clock. She had only been asleep for ten minutes.

"_I think I'm in love with Tad."_ The female voice echoed from the other line, sounding too loud for Katie's ear. She closes her eyes again…

"You only realized that now?" Katie asks lazily. Can her friends be more clueless?

"_What's that supposed to mean?" _

"You've been in love with each other for so long, Grace. Everybody knows that, except you and Tad."

"_Really?"_ Grace couldn't believe it. Katie opens her eyelids and rolls her eyes.

"Yeah, really."

"_But we're not even dating."_

"Cut the crap. You slept together in Ecuador." Katie couldn't forget those two leaving her to share the tree house with Jessie. Unconsciously, a smile forms in her face as she remembered how Jessie's face was illuminated in the moonlight…

_Really beautiful…_

"_Look at how malicious you are."_ Grace says indignantly.

"You mean nothing happened in Ecuador?" Katie frowns.

"_Nothing! We just… Cuddled…"_ Grace feels embarrassed by admitting this, but she couldn't lie. Nothing happened in Ecuador. She hears Katie laughing on the other line.

"You called me at this time in the morning to tell me that?" Katie is still laughing.

"_Don't mock me. How about you, did something happen between you and Jessie while in Ecuador?"_ Grace intends to embarrass Katie as much, but surprises herself.

"Yeah…"

Pause…

"She made me cry." Katie admits.

"_Damn! You mean she's that good?"_ Grace jokes.

"It wasn't tears of joy. I know what you're thinking. Who's the malicious one now?" Katie's eyebrows contorted as if its ends are going to actually meet.

"_She harassed you?"_ Grace jokes again.

"What? NO. Do you realize she's smaller to try something on me?"

"_Yeah, it's not like she would need to use force, but_…" Grace trails off, feeling Katie's killer eyes on the other line. "What happened?"

"We said some harsh things… We hurt each other…"

"_You do that everyday…"_

"I know… I really feel sorry." Katie says sincerely.

"_You should tell her."_ Grace encourages her.

"I did… Then she told me how she wished she had never met me… That I would have been better as a distant memory…"

"_Oh… I'm sorry…"_ Grace wished she could be there and comfort Katie, but knew that Katie is strong and will be able to face this, whatever this new adversity is…

"Remember the girl I was telling you about? That one I saw outside the church in December…"

"_Yeah…"_

"It was Jessie…" Katie smiles, and Grace was surprised. The world is getting smaller every time…

Pause…

"_What's going on between you two?" _Grace sounds serious.

"There's nothing between us…" Katie sighs… Is it disappointment, or something else?

"_How can you explain the sexual tension every time you're around each other?"_ Grace could definitely feel that.

"There's nothing sexual about it." Katie reacts defensively.

"_Maybe, but it's so confusing… There's a fine line between attraction and hatred, but in your case, everything's in the gray area…"_ Grace had always thought it was confusing, that Katie's firm on making Jessie feel that she hates her, but she couldn't help throwing annoyed glances at the blonde every time she's talking to Hanna or Julie… But when Jessie's alone, Katie still stole glances of the doctor… And then there's that time when Katie actually called her 'Jessie'…

"You're right… Right now, everything is so gray…"

"_If you really are sorry, you should try talking to her again." _

"I'm not sure about my feelings anymore…" Katie sighs… Grace paused…

"_What feelings?"_ Grace wondered if Katie would actually admit what she and Tad had been suspecting.

"I don't know… Do I hate Jessie because I'm still in love with Eli and Jessie reminds me of him, or do I hate Jessie because I actually like her and it just so happen that she's Eli's sister?"

And Grace was right. Though it was implied, Katie does consider that what she feels for Jessie isn't hate… It could be something more. Katie could be rediscovering herself, and not having the time of her life doing it… It was something new, after all…

x - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - x

Broward General Medical Center… Katie is about to finish her morning shift and Grace came in early for her afternoon shift. Julie is encoding the inventory of their available medicines in the computer, while Mae, another nurse-on-duty, is cleaning up the mess they created after treating that victim of a car accident a few minutes ago…

"I was calling you last night, where were you?" Grace curiously asks, and Katie looks up, thinking Grace was talking to her. But before she could answer, she notices she's looking at someone else; at Julie.

"She's with her new boyfriend." Mae grins, and Julie smiles. Katie turns her head curiously at Julie…

_Don't you mean 'girlfriend'?... _Katie sulks. Are Jessie and Julie actually planning to buy a house and move in together? She did see them house-shopping yesterday, and she fought over the house with Jessie. And she realized she hadn't made any proper arrangement with the agent of that house. Not that she was really planning to buy a house, it was an impulse triggered by Jessie's same interest with that particular dwelling. She silently blames herself, and hopes Jessie hadn't bought it…

"You have a new boyfriend? Why didn't I know that?" Grace smiles at Julie, intrigued. From the corner of her eyes, she could see Katie not looking so happy, but obviously pissed. She haven't been so fond of Julie or Hanna lately…

"You know what Mae, I was planning to keep quiet about it." Julie mocks anger, then laughs. Katie rolls her eyes.

"So tell me, who's this guy? What's he like?" Grace looks too interested for Katie's taste. Wasn't Grace supposed to be her friend?

"Yeah Julie, what's SHE like? Is she blonde?" Katie says with so much sarcasm. Grace, Mae and Julie turn their heads simultaneously at her.

"Excuse me?" Julie asks with amusement. Katie sure doesn't look happy.

"You can drop the pronoun game now. We all know who you're talking about. You went house-shopping with her yesterday." Katie crosses her arms and slumps on the swivel chair behind the oak table, which, Katie forgot for a moment, was Jessie's chair. Jessie is currently making rounds…

Katie sulks even more upon hearing Julie's annoying giggles…

"Are you jealous?" Julie purposely goads her, while Katie throws back a dangerous look.

"NO. Why would I be?"

Just then, Jessie comes back into the ER and stops in front of her table, and upon seeing Katie sitting in her chair, she merely looks at her; her face unreadable. It was only when her celphone starts ringing again that Katie realized someone was standing in front of her. Upon realizing that Jessie was waiting for her to vacate her chair, Katie flushed bright red and gets up from her chair. But before she could leave the table, Jessie reaches from the right pocket of her white coat for her celphone and seeing who was calling, she leans over the table, pulls the drawer to Katie's direction, throws her celphone in, and slams the drawer shut. Jessie then marches away from the table and heads to their bathroom on the far end of the room… Katie, after watching Jessie close the bathroom door, looks down at the drawer, pulls it open, and realizes that the phone is still ringing…

_Yvette Lawrence?... _The one who's calling is one Yvette Lawrence. Who is Yvette Lawrence, what does she want from Jessie, and why is Jessie dodging her call? The celphone stops ringing…

Meanwhile, Grace, Julie and Mae had seen the whole scene…

"She keeps ignoring me all day." Katie turns to Grace's direction.

"Bad karma." Julie butts in, earning another glare from Katie.

"Ha-ha." Katie mocks Julie. "Why don't you follow her and make her feel better?" Katie growls. Julie laughs again.

"I do HAVE a boyfriend, Katie. His name's Cooper, and Jessie introduced me to him. You can stop hating me now." Julie smiles at Katie. Katie gives her a cold stare.

Before Katie could say anything else, the attendants came rushing in, pushing a stretcher. They were followed by a beautiful woman, a brunette, might be slightly shorter than Jessie, but her small frame is a contrast to the sophistication and intelligence that she exudes. Katie feels a bit intimidated and insecure just by looking at the woman…

Realizing the seriousness of this emergency by the look on the woman's face, Grace and Julie rushes to tend to the patient, who's having an arrest. Mae runs to fetch Jessie from the bathroom, and Katie could hear her banging on the bathroom door, while Katie remained standing frozen to where she stood. The man lying on the stretcher, being transferred by the attendants to the hospital bed a few feet away from her, looks so damn familiar…

It was Jessie and Eli's father, Rick Sammler; a legend in Utah, prominent businessman, and respected figure in the manufacturing world of Salt Lake City.

"What happened?" Grace asks the companion of the patient as calm as possible. She and Julie are already preparing the things they might be needing. She hoped Mae brings Jessie back into the ER sooner, because the patient doesn't look so good.

"I think he's having a heart attack… Oh my God… I was driving, and he's just so happy and excited to see his daughter again, and I don't know… He just stopped talking and… Tell me he's going to be okay, please…" The female is crying.

"We'll do our best, Miss…" Julie trails off. She grabs a machine somewhere and pulls it to the bedside.

"Lawrence… Yvette Lawrence…" The sophisticated female sobs. Katie snaps out of her daze after hearing the name. She walks closer to the hospital bed and upon seeing their patient, it only confirmed her fears…

"He's turning purple! Where's the oxygen?!" Julie screams and Grace immediately supplies the patient with an oxygen mask. Katie felt like she was trapped in a movie. She stood frozen, unmoved… Her hands are trembling…

"I think he's having an arrest again---" Grace was interrupted.

"Excuse me." Jessie makes her way to the patient, only to shock herself… Her jaw drops, and her face becomes noticeably pale. Suddenly feeling the chills creeping up her spine, Jessie rushed to the bedside of her father… "Dad!... He's not breathing!" Jessie feels her father's chest… She could barely feel hear her father's heartbeat…

Grace, Julie and Mae exchanged looks. Katie is the only one who isn't surprised. Jessie is trying to control the tears from falling from her eyes…

"Dad, hold on… Where's the defibrillator?!" Jessie screams. Julie and Mae pull the electric-shock machine closer to the bedside. Jessie starts working… "Set it! 1, 2, 3!"

"Clear!" Grace says.

"Clear!" Julie concurs.

"Clear!" Mae replies the same. Katie couldn't seem to think of anything. She couldn't do anything. She just stood there, watching…

"I'm charging!" Jessie repeated the procedure, and the electricity run through her father's body… But it was late… Too late… She knew she could only do so much…

"Dad, don't die on me please! Charging!" Jessie tries again. She needs to revive her dad. She has to. She hadn't seen him in years. This is not how they are supposed to meet again…

"Jessie…" Julie turns to Jessie, looking at her sympathetically. The nurse is aware that this case is hopeless…

Elijah Richard Sammler II is dead. And they can't do anything to bring him back… Jessie stares at her father, lying cold on the hospital bed, lifeless…

Everybody in the room falls into an eerie silence. It had never been this quiet. Katie remained watching, with Jessie's back turned on her. She wanted to walk over to her, talk to her, comfort her…

But the beautiful, sophisticated female who was accompanying Rick Sammler was able to reach Jessie first. Seeing the two standing close to each other brought an unexplainable feeling in her heart…

Katie couldn't help but wonder who Yvette Lawrence is in Jessie's life…

"You weren't answering my call…" Yvette whispers to Jessie. Jessie answers without tearing her eyes away from her father…

"I didn't know it was important…" Jessie walks out of the Emergency Room, totally ignoring everyone.

Jessie stood in the middle of the parking are of Broward. Everything happened so fast. She was crying all the time she was trying to revive her father. She stood looking at nothing in particular. She runs her right hand through her hair, cold sweat drenched her body. She could feel her heart beating wildly. Back at the Emergency Room, she felt as if she was going to explode. She had never felt so much pain in her life, nothing that would hurt as much as this. Thoughts are swirling in her head, but she was deprived of feeling anything. She scampered to a distance, and kicked a stray, empty can of coke hard that if flew into the air, missing a red Ford by inches…

"You missed…" Katie stood a few feet behind Jessie, looking at her Ford that was almost scratched by the can that Jessie kicked. Jessie didn't have to turn around to see her. Katie continued. "It wasn't your fault, you know. You're not God."

"I didn't say that I am."

"There's no point to be angry."

"You came here just to tell me that?" Jessie turns to face Katie with a glare. Katie isn't a bit intimidated by this new side of Jessie. She knows how the blonde is feeling; she felt it too.

"It's better than wallowing in self-pity." Katie's remark only earned her an even fiercer glare from Jessie.

"Ironic, isn't it?"

"What?"

"You who loathed every moment that you had to spend time and work with me is now trying to make me feel better by telling me that it wasn't my fault… Why do you even bother?" Jessie's cold stare is boring through Katie's eyes. But Katie bravely holds her gaze. When Katie didn't answer, Jessie continued. "Maybe he was right. I shouldn't have chosen to be a doctor." With that, Jessie turns her back on Katie, and walks away…

x - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - x

"Have you heard?" Katie hears Grace's voice from her kitchen. It's been a week since the death of Jessie's father, and Katie hadn't seen the doctor since then. Tad will be coming later tonight to join her for a movie marathon. Grace then comes back with a bowl of popcorn.

"Heard what?" Katie frowns.

"She quit."

"Who quit?"

"Jessie. She flew back to Utah, and I heard she's not coming back." Grace informs her now dazed friend.

Lots of memories flashed through Katie's mind. She had been there, at the Sammler Manor in their large estate in Salina, Utah. She remembered supervising the wedding preparations, she remember walking with Eli on her side, she remembered riding the horses and overseeing the workers in the apple plantation in one part of the estate in Salina and visiting the other Sammler-owned manufacturing companies (transportation and electrical equipments) in Salt Lake City… She remembered her wedding gown, her gorgeous bouquet, her excitement… And most of all, she remembered lying on the grass and looking at the stars with Eli…

"She has to go back." Grace continues.

"What?" Katie is pretty aware of how the news made her feel, but there's no reason to act weak about this. It's Jessie's choice to leave.

"We can't let her leave her life here."

"If she doesn't want to stay, who are we to force her to stay?"

"YOU have to make her go back."

"Why would I do that?" Katie squeaks.

"Because it's stupid of her to drop her life here just to continue her father's legacy in Utah. That's not her, that's not her life. I don't want to see her miserable because of some wrong, guilty and impulsive decision. I may not have known her long, but I saw how she loves helping people, curing them. That's what she does best, and I don't want her to stop doing that."

"If that's what you want, then why don't YOU stop her?" Katie raises an eyebrow at Grace.

"Remember what you told me?"

"I've told you so many things." Katie snorts.

"You said you're confused about your feelings… It's time to ascertain what this 'gray area' between you and Jessie is all about, Katie.

"I'm not going to go see her just to convince her to come back here, Grace. That's so pathetic." Katie says firmly.

"Maybe you're just scared." Grace states knowingly. Katie stares at her.

"I'm not scared."

"Really?" Grace smiles, holding Katie's eyes with her own. "Tell me you're not scared of seeing Eli again, and tell me that's not the reason why you don't want to come over and convince Jessie to go back."

"I don't care about Eli anymore. I'm over him." Katie adamantly answered.

"Then tell me you're not scared of seeing Jessie again, of facing what could be an unexpected adversity of this newfound and very complex feelings that you and I both know exists in your heart at this very moment." Grace challenges Katie.

Katie sighs…

Meanwhile, at the Sammler Manor, at the Sammler Estate in Salina, Utah… A table was set up in front of the mansion, and the two chairs are currently occupied by Jessie and Yvette… The butler pours a cup of coffee for each of them…

"Eli's coming home in a few days. Until then, we can open your father's last will." Yvette informs Jessie. Jessie nods.

Yvette Lawrence is a family friend. She and Jessie had been friends since gradeschool, and they both went to a prestigious and exclusive girls' school in Salt Lake City, 'til Jessie ran away. When both of them started college, they met again in Boston, where both of them studied at Harvard; Yvette taking up Law, and Jessie, Medicine. They were really close, probably more than bestfriends, but less than lovers. Yvette had always been fond of Jessie, at one point of her life, even considered having feelings for the blonde, but she contained it. It was for the best. She and Jessie remained in contact, and unknown to Jessie, Yvette had been filling her father with updates on his daughter's life…

Yvette eventually became a lawyer, but unlike Jessie, she went back to Utah. Rick Sammler then hired her as the Sammler Group's lawyer, and his very own lawyer. Jessie's father obviously trusted Yvette more than anyone. She told Jessie what happened that day, and what they were doing in Florida.

Jessie found out that her father and Yvette were on their way to see her at the hospital to surprise her. It was all planned out. Her father was going to apologize to her for wanting to stop her from doing what she wants, and to tell her that he loves her. Yvette told her how excited her father was, how happy he was, then he had that heart attack…

A supposed to be happy reunion turned out to be a fatal last meeting instead… Jessie felt like she could never forgive herself for not answering her celphone. She could have at least been able to say goodbye…

"He wouldn't be happy to see me here." Jessie sighs.

"Just ignore him then."

Eli, obviously, isn't happy when Jessie ran away, leaving him with his dad. He did tell Katie all those crap about his sister being selfish. The truth is he's just really angry at Jessie for beating him at running away. His sister was managed to run away first, so he stayed behind. He stayed with his father and followed his wishes. Instead of traveling the world with a rock band, he became active with the Sammler Group of Companies. He didn't have a choice. No one was left to help him…

Yvette noticed how depressed Jessie had seemed in the past few days. She knew Jessie would have preferred to stay behind in Florida. She did tell the blonde that when Eli comes back, she'll just phone her to come to Utah for the reading of the will. Jessie had started a good life in Florida. What Yvette didn't understand is that Jessie quit her job at Broward and decided to come fly with her back to Utah, without any clear plan.

_Is she going to drop her profession to pursue this life that she ran away from?... _Yvette wished it isn't…

"Why didn't you ever sleep with me?" Jessie question was so out of the blue, Yvette almost spit her coffee. She stares at Jessie's blue eyes, then she smiles.

"Had I, it would have been harder letting you go." Yvette honestly answered. She and Jessie never really dated. But she never hid the attraction that she felt toward Jessie. Jessie is aware of it.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh come on, Jessie. You know I loved you, I still do and maybe I always will. And to be honest, I really do want to be with you as much as I can, in the most intimate way that I could. But then, I know I'll just hurt myself in the end." Yvette looks a bit regretful, but she's not really the kind of person who dwells in failures.

"I'm a gentle lover, you won't get hurt." Jessie jokes, and for the first time since Rick's death, Yvette saw her smile. The lawyer was glad. Yvette laughs… Then she sighs.

"As much as I wanted to make love with you Jessie, I couldn't. 'Coz between us, it will always be just sex. And I have too much feelings for you to gamble with one-time pleasure. If I was going to sleep with you, I wanted it to mean something. But I know better, so I moved on."

"I don't want you to move on." Yvette will always be special to Jessie.

"Neither do I, but I had to. Jessie, you've always maintained this strong belief that you're going to find your soul mate. Had I been your soul mate, you wouldn't have ran away. I thought it was foolish and irrational, but you believed it. Who am I to compete with that?"

"I was foolish, Yvette. It was a childish notion, something I must have had gotten from those fairtytales…" Jessie sighs. "Soulmates doesn't exist."

Yvette watched her friend stare in nothingness.

_Something else happened in Florida… _Yvette just knew it.

Night… It was clear and every star is visible in the sky. It was so quiet, the silence was deafening. Katie turns the stereo of her car on, and searches for a station… As she drove and steered the car into the familiar vastness of the estate she was trailing, her heartbeat is striking wildly against her chest…

Her celphone rings, and she puts her headset on…

"What?" Katie growls.

"_Where's the static coming from? Where the hell are you?"_ Tad whines on the other line.

"Utah."

"_Are you kidding? What are you doing there?"_ Tad couldn't believe what he's hearing. He isn't even aware that Katie had left for Utah.

"I have to talk to Jessie."

"_About what?"_

"She quit her job. I'll make her go back."

"_I thought you said you hate her." _

"I need to do this." Katie sighs. She wished Tad would just stop asking her questions.

"_You do realize that you're gonna be seeing Eli again, right?"_ Tad is concerned. The last thing he wants is for Katie to revive her feelings for Eli again.

"I don't care about Eli." Katie says firmly. She threw a few glances upon entering the Sammler Estate. Only a few things have changed. The fences are a bit older, the paddocks are wide and clear, the stable had been renovated and bigger. In a few minutes, she'll reach the manor…

"_Katie?" _

Katie was lost in thoughts, when a horse with its rider came out of nowhere. Trying to avoid a collision, Katie steers the car to the left, hitting an unsuspecting tree. The impact was so powerful, Katie was lucky that she had her seatbelt strapped around her. The airbag popped out, and then, everything went into a blur…

The line went dead…


	5. Indecisions

**CHAPTER 5 INDECISIONS**

Katie twists and turns on the bed, trying to find a comfortable position. The feel of the bed sheet and the cushion was unfamiliar; it was softer and fragrant, but it didn't help to soothe her currently aching head.

_What happened?..._ The dirty blonde opens her eyes, and surprises herself upon the sight of the room. It was familiar, but she couldn't seem to figure where she is immediately. She remembered driving last night, talking to Tad, then avoiding a collision with that horse, she steered the car away, and everything else was vague.

But she does recognize the room now…

"Finally, you're up. I thought you were dead. You barely moved the whole time." The soft voice had traces of sarcasm on it. Katie turns her head at the direction of the door, and for a while, loses herself in a trance at the sight of the blonde. Something about Jessie is making her want to stare, more than she would normally allow herself. "What?" Jessie asks, sounding irritated. Katie blinks and shifts her eyes away from Jessie, and Katie's eyes fall upon a picture hanging on the wall…

"What do you expect me to do? You're supposed to NOT move when you're sleeping." Katie sulks, then narrows her eyes on Jessie. "Were you watching me sleep?" Jessie didn't react. Katie assumed it was late in the afternoon. The sun outside, as she could view from the already open window told her so. She had fallen asleep too long. Katie shifts her eyes back to the picture on the wall. She couldn't believe it was still hanging there. Rick Sammler proudly gave her this room when she stayed here for the preparations of her wedding with Eli. It was going to be the wedding of the century… Until she ran away…

Jessie follows her gaze, and her face apparently sours upon seeing what Katie was staring at: the picture of Eli and Katie before their supposed to be wedding day…

"I was going to burn that down. But I decided I'm going to wait for Eli's return so he could see his dream dissolve into flames." Jessie plasters an evil smirk on her face, and Katie frowns at her.

"What are you doing here?" Katie is evidently annoyed. Jessie raises an eyebrow.

"What are YOU doing here?" Jessie mimics Katie. The dirty blonde is in no position to ask her what she's doing in her family's manor. Katie suddenly realizes that. In coming here, she has no exact plans, and she has no idea what to say to Jessie when she sees her. This impulsive decision to fly from Florida to Utah was triggered by this confusing feeling towards Jessie, and some nudging from Grace…

Katie felt herself being caught off-guard…

"Just tell me you missed me. I can see it in your eyes." Jessie teases. Katie's face flushes bright red and her eyes widens. She tried to find a smart come back but only stuttered like a child. "Don't worry, I missed you too." Jessie says grins.

"You're way over your head. I never missed you, not for one minute." Katie says in defense. She wondered why she's taking all these embarrassments from Jessie. It would have been easy to walk away. Katie noticed that the smile had disappeared from Jessie's face.

"See you later." Jessie turns to leave the room when Katie forces herself to stand up and fall back to the bed after suddenly feeling nausea hit her.

"Oww…" Katie holds her head, and Jessie watches in amusement.

"You know, you could have injured my horse seriously with that stunt you pulled last night." Jessie snaps at Katie. Katie looks back in disbelief.

_So the horse matters more than me? Great…_

"It was you on the horse? What the hell are you doing horse-back riding at night?" Katie growls at Jessie.

"What the hell are you doing prowling around somebody else's property hundreds of miles away from where you live? Are you that desperate to see Eli again?" Jessie snarls at Katie, which made Katie flinch from where she sat.

"I'm not here to see Eli…" Katie calms…

"Why else would you be here? Oh, let me guess. You realized that you made the wrong decision and you're here to win my brother back. How romantic." Jessie mockingly clasps her hands together. She took note of really burning that picture of Eli and Katie on the wall soon.

_The ashes won't even survive… _

"I'm here to see you, you jerk. Why are you being so hard on me?"

"Look who's talking." Jessie rolls her eyes, but deep inside, Katie's confession made her heart tingle.

"I want you go to back to Florida." Katie finally manages to say. Jessie stares at her, her blue eyes reaching to Katie's very soul… Katie held her breath… These feelings for Jessie are turning into one massive cyclone every second that she locks eyes with her…

_Am I ready for this?... _Katie wondered…

"Why?" Jessie crosses her arms.

"People need you." _Lame answer, Katie…_

"Is that all?" Jessie's face is blank. Her tone was cold.

"Jessie---"

"Come out for dinner later. And please change your clothes. I've asked Yvette to shop a few for you this morning. I think she put it on your closet."

_Yvette? Yvette Lawrence is here?... _Katie frowns again. She couldn't think of any reason for this Yvette to be here. Suddenly, she feels so insecure again…

"I'm not staying. I'm leaving now."

"No you're not. You're leaving tomorrow." Jessie says firmly and walks back to Katie's direction, lifting her right hand to Katie's face and suddenly pulls the band aid from her forehead, which Katie hadn't notice that she had until now.

"Aww!" What did you do that for?!" Katie rubs the part of her forehead where the band aid formerly was.

"It needs to be replaced." Jessie says calmly and pulls the drawer of the bedside table. She picks up a bottle of alcohol and pours some on a piece of cotton and cleans the scratches on her forehead, then unwraps a new piece of band aid and replaces the old one.

"You could have at least warned me!" Katie whines. Jessie displays a toothy smile, mocking her.

"Sorry, what?" Jessie taunts her even more. Katie sulks.

"I'm really leaving now."

"I said NO." Jessie emphasizes.

"You can't hold me hostage. That's kidnapping." Katie warns her.

"And you're a trespasser and a stalker."

"I sure am not a stalker, you're---"

"Shut up and stop being so stubborn and let me be your doctor, okay? If it wasn't for your stupidity, you wouldn't be lying on that bed for more than 12 hours. See you in an hour." Jessie says dismissively and walks out of the room. Katie watches her in disbelief.

"I can't believe I flew hundreds of miles for this. You really are a jerk." Katie was not intending for Jessie to hear that, but was surprised when the door opened again and Jessie poked her head in…

"I heard that." Jessie narrows her eyes on Katie again, who is now blushing so furiously, she could feel the smokes coming out of her ear…

x - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - x

Katie hadn't even finished her dinner when she excused herself. Yvette turned out to be very pleasant, and Katie actually liked her, but that even made her feel more insecure towards the brunette lawyer. Even after introducing herself as the Sammler's family lawyer and a family friend, Katie couldn't help but notice the way Jessie and Yvette treat each other. They seemed to be so close, and have so much fun whenever they talk to each other. During dinner, they couldn't stop talking, and sometimes, they forget that Katie is in the same table with them. This didn't help make Katie feel any better. It had her feel worse… When she retreated to her room, she felt the need to talk to someone… So she called Grace…

"_Katie?" _Katie hears Grace's voice from the other line.

"Hi, Grace."

"_Where are you? Are you back from Utah?" _

"I'm still here at Salina, actually…" Katie trails off, not knowing the reason why she really called… Pause…

"_You okay?" _Grace sounds concerned.

"I just… I don't think she would want to go back to Florida, Grace… She has good life here."

"_A 'good' life that she ran away from? I thought she hated that?" _

Katie pauses for a while, before deciding to tell the reason why she called…

"Yvette is here."

"_Who?" _Grace couldn't remember where she had heard that name before.

"Yvette, that beautiful, sophisticated woman who brought Jessie's father in, remember?" Katie reminds Grace, and Grace pauses, recalling the events of that fateful day…

"_Are you jealous?" _Grace asks her bluntly… She hears Katie sigh…

"She's beautiful, intelligent, rich, and she's a lawyer, Grace… They have known each other for a long time. They know each of their secrets. I bet they were even each other's first kiss---"

"_Did they tell you that?"_

"No, but---"

"_You got it bad, Singer…" _Grace shakes her head… Katie closes her eyes and mulls over for a while…

"Why don't I know Jessie as much as Yvette knows her? In fact, I don't know anything about Jessie at all…"

"_Maybe that's why you're there…" _

"I don't know what's going on with me… I don't know why I even care about all of this… Jessie could even care less about me. I crashed the rental car last night and all she could worry about is her horse, which, by the way, is the reason why I crashed." Katie shakes her head.

"_Wow, you really are making a habit of crashing cars these days… Are you okay?" _Grace was referring about the crash…

"No… I don't know…" Katie sighs… And on the other line, Grace smiles… Her friend has to figure out what she wants with Jessie… She has to face it, sooner or later…

3:00 a.m. Katie still couldn't fall asleep. She left her room and went out of the house. The night was clear and the moon was full. She decided to take a walk. The wind brush against her face, sending a pleasant feeling throughout her body. She keeps walking on the grass, when she tripped on something big and fell…

On top of Jessie…

Their faces were visible the moonlight. At first, they couldn't move in surprise, their faces were only a few inches from touching, that the shock turned both of them immobile… Well, Jessie, who was under, was able to get back to her senses first…

"What exactly are you planning to do with me?" Jessie asks Katie, and Katie, realizing the position they were in, immediately gets up. She could feel her face warming in embarrassment again. Jessie remains lying on the grass, both her hands under her head…

"What are you doing out here anyway?" Katie tries to avoid an awkward conversation.

"I should be asking you that?"

"I was just taking a walk."

"At three in the morning?" Jessie raises an eyebrow.

"Look, it's none of your damn business, alright?"

"You're supposed to take a rest." Jessie raises her voice.

"I'm fine." Katie insists.

"You're not fine until I tell you that you are." Jessie says dismissively. Katie rolls her eyes, then she looks down and watches Jessie.

"Is this a normal thing for you? Lying in the middle of the field and sleep?"

"I'm not sleeping, I'm just watching the sky. I believe I'd actually see an angel coming down one day. Then I could die." Jessie smiles…

"That's something you have in common with Eli. He spends eternity just watching outer space." Katie's comment made Jessie shut up for a while.

"You just can't help talking about him, can you?" Jessie says coldly.

"I was only trying to make a conversation." Katie says defensively. Jessie ignores her. Katie sits on the grass beside her. Still, Jessie didn't say anything. Katie lay down beside her and continued talking. "You should go back."

"I've made my decision. I'm not coming back…"

"Don't be stupid. You can't just drop your future because of one mistake. Blaming yourself for something you had no control of and shutting out the world is not gonna change anything."

"You're talking like you know me." Jessie knows she's being rude, but having Katie lying next to her is not helping her make any coherent thoughts. Let's just say that this is a part of her defense mechanism.

"Yeah, in fact, I do. You're Eli's stupid sister." Katie is apparently annoyed. If she's stubborn, Jessie is worse.

"Uh-huh. I'm your cheating ex-fiance's sister."

"Can we not talk about Eli?"

"You're the first one who brought him up." Jessie retorts.

Pause… Katie changes the subject…

"For God's sake, you're a doctor. This isn't your life." Katie turns her head to face Jessie. Jessie didn't dare.

"This is my life. I ran away from it, I'm just paying the price."

"Don't do this because of guilt."

"What are you saying?"

"Death is part of life. People die everyday. It's not your fault that your father died."

"You're wasting your breath. I'm not going to change my mind. I don't want to disappoint him anymore."

"Why did you run away?" Katie asks curiously.

"Because I was selfish… I wanted to be a doctor so badly, but my dad wouldn't let me pursue that dream. He had so many plans for me, other plans… So I ran away…" Jessie sighs…

"You didn't think of what your father would feel?"

"I felt so hurt at the time to even care…" Jessie, this time, throws a glance to Katie… "How much did you love my brother?" Jessie suddenly asks. Katie blinks, not knowing how to answer the question…

"Do you still love him?" Jessie asks another question before Katie could even answer… She answered neither…

x - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - x

The next day… At the bedroom where Katie was staying… She had been looking for the car keys of her rental car, but then she realized she hadn't seen her rental car since she crashed it. When she couldn't find the keys in her bedroom, she looked everywhere else, but couldn't find it anywhere in the house. Even the butler doesn't have any idea where the keys are, but he did mention that that 'scrap of a car' had been 'properly disposed of'. Katie feared what he meant.

As she walks her way back to her bedroom, she noticed the almost forgotten narrow stairway that leads to the unbelievably wide attic of the far end of the mansion. She used to come up there and stare out of the window to watch the sun set. She reluctantly made steps away, but later, couldn't help herself anymore. She walks back and comes up the stairs…

She pushed the trap door open and entered. It looked better than before. There were furnitures and a huge, four-poster bed. Obviously, someone had been occupying the attic since she ran away. Upon realizing this, she made a step to leave but it was too late…

As she heads back to the stairs, the bathroom door in just ahead of her flings open, revealing a sultry, wet Jessie on a towel, making her turn around, her face burning in embarrassment. Jessie freezes for a while…

"Sorry, I---"

"Tresspassing?" Jessie managed to supply smoothly. Unlike Katie, she was able to composed herself faster.

"Of course not. It used to be vacant. I thought… Forget it. I'm leaving." Katie was about to take a walk, but realized that Jessie was actually standing near the stairs. Leaving would mean that she has to go past the blonde, who apparently had just gotten out of the shower…

"What do you want?" Jessie asks.

"I was just looking for my car keys." Katie remains standing with her back turned on Jessie. Instead of an answer, she hears laughing. Katie frowns. What is so funny?"

"Why are you looking at the wall? I'm right here." Jessie chuckles. She could see Katie's right foot tapping on the floor, and her arms were crossed. _Do I make her nervous?..._

"Do you really have to ask?" Katie sounds annoyed. _What a clueless person… _Katie shakes her head.

"I'm wearing a towel."

"We don't have to discuss this."

"It's nothing you haven't seen before." Jessie sounds amused. "I assume you have the same---"

"I'm not talking about this with you. Can't you get your pants on? This is pretty embarrassing." Katie retorts. Jessie shakes her head in amusement. Jessie walks to her closet and pulls something and wears it…

"Can I turn around now?" Katie asks impatiently.

"Uhm… Sure." Jessie answers. Katie does, and her eyes widens. Jessie is indeed dressed, on her lace underwear… It almost made her heart stop…

_Okay, this is worse than I thought… _Katie is literally having a hard time to breathe… Hoping that Jessie wouldn't notice the effect she has on her, Katie tries her best to act 'normal'. Jessie pulls a pair of pants and jumps into it, to Katie's relief.

"So…?" Jessie trails off, while looking at Katie and at the same time, zipping her pants on. But her exposed abs and the edges of her lacy bra are still distracting Katie… Katie has to shake her head of the unholy thoughts first (the kind that she isn't even aware she has the capability of having so), before she could actually answer Jessie…

"What?" Katie literally squeaks. Jessie chuckles.

"Why are you here?"

"My keys… I'm looking for my car keys."

"I had the car picked up by the rental company."

"What? How could you do that? How am I supposed to leave today without that car?"

"It's not like you can still use it anyway. You pretty much totaled it… Poor car. And I had to pay for it." Jessie mocks Katie. Jessie walks back to her closet to find a shirt.

"This is unbelievable. You're gonna have to drive me to the airport then. Let's go." Katie motions to the stairs, but Jessie shakes her head.

"Who said you're leaving?" Jessie says smoothly. Katie looks at her in disbelief.

"I did." Katie answers, and to her annoyance, Jessie just laughs at her. "Do I look like a clown?" Katie frowns.

"You're not leaving now."

"You can't stop me."

"Fine. Have it your way. You can walk to the airport then. It's your choice." Jessie shrugs indifferently. Katie's eyes bulged out of their sockets.

_Merely walking out of this estate will take me one whole day!... _

"YOU are unbelievable." Katie marches away from Jessie, to the direction of the stairs. Jessie is currently pulling a red shirt on.

"Where are you going?"

"Stables."

"Why?" Jessie narrows her eyes on Katie.

"I'm riding Thunder." Katie grins and runs down the stairs. It was Jessie's turn to look at her in disbelief this time.

"Thunder?! But Thunder is the most dangerous stallion---" Jessie runs after Katie, but the dirty blonde had already ran for the stables ahead of her… Katie runs away, and worried about what might happen, Jessie runs after her.

_SHE is the biggest kid of all… _Jessie shakes her head as she scampers after Katie.

At the stables, Katie courteously greets Mr. Dubois, the French caretaker of the horses, and tells him what she's intending to do, and the old man happily obliged to indulge the dirty blonde. He leads her to the coop where Thunder is, leads the horse out, and helps Katie climb into Thunder. Jessie could be seen running to the direction of the stables, and before Jessie could stop Katie, Katie gave the stallion a kick, and it sprints into the paddocks…

"Katie!" Jessie screams after her, but Katie merely waves at her as she sprints away with the horse. Jessie turns to Mr. Dubois.

"Take Fascia out, and please, as fast as you could."

"But Mademoiselle Sammler, Fascia is still very feral. We have not---" Mr. Dubois was about to suggest another horse, but Jessie doesn't need a slower horse. She needs a horse that could catch up with Thunder. And so far, Fascia is the only option.

"I can handle her." Jessie says firmly. Mr. Dubois reluctantly does what Jessie wants. Jessie mounted the stallion and dashed to follow Katie. The caretaker worriedly watched her as she sprints away on pursuit of Katie.

It's after a kilometer away that Katie realized Jessie is in close pursuit of her…

"Stop while you can! He'd throw you off!" Jessie shouts after Katie. A few seconds later, she's finally able to catch up, and her stallion runs side by side with Katie's…

"What?!"

"Just stop!"

"Why would I listen to you?!" Katie grins at her… This race is becoming really interesting… Katie kicked her horse and it sprints even faster…

"Don't be stubborn Katie!"

"I've ridden Thunder a thousand times before! Why are you so worried about me?!" Katie shouts back. Jessie looks at her in disbelief. This is really the time to discuss this; not when you're mounted over a really dangerous stallion that might throw you off and injure you for life.

"Will you just stop and get off the horse?!" Jessie says impatiently. Instead of answering, Katie asks her an unexpected question…

"Why did you disown your parents?!"

"What?!"

"You disowned your parents! Why did you?! What kind of person would do that?!" Katie isn't sure why she's asking this now. But she just has to know… Jessie looks at her, half-amused, half-irritated.

"Is that what Eli told you?!" Jessie knew the answer already.

"Just answer the question!"

"Well, the answer is that Eli told you a lot of crap! I did not disown my parents! THEY disowned ME because I didn't want to be little princess Sammler!" Jessie couldn't believe what she's hearing. Eli had painted this ugly picture of her for Katie before she even knew that she exists.

Jessie wouldn't have come back even when her father died. But through Yvette, she found out that this was his father's wish, to have her back… Rick Sammler reinstated her as an heir to the Sammler fortune… But it's definitely not the reason why she came back to Utah.

"What?!" Katie turns to look at Jessie, but realizes that the blonde is no longer riding side by side with her. When she looked for her, she found out that Jessie had been thrown off by her horse, and was now lying on the grass, wincing in pain…

Katie suddenly stops her horse, jumps down and runs to Jessie's direction…

"Oh my God, Jessie!" Katie runs by her side… She's actually so damn worried about Jessie…

"Jessie, are you okay?!" Tears starts falling from Katie's eyes upon seeing that Jessie is hurting. Despite the fact that she's a nurse, she really couldn't think what to do. When she looks down at Jessie…

"I'm fine…"

"I'll bring you to the hospital. You need a doctor."

"I AM a doctor." Jessie replies almost indignantly.

"Don't be stupid. You hurt yourself. We're going to a doctor."

"Will you relax? I just sprained my ankle. I'll be fine." Jessie gets up and tries to stand. She isn't having a great time doing this, but she isn't very thrilled of the idea about coming to see a doctor. It's just weird.

"Jessie, you are so stubborn!"

"Says you?" Jessie says, amused.

"Look, we need to know if you've broken something. It's dangerous to just assume that you're fine just because you feel nothing odd. You're a doctor. You should know the precautions. We are going to the hospital no matter what---" Katie was cut off as she felt a pair of familiar soft lips brushed with hers…

And she automatically surrendered… The kiss started so gentle… Katie could feel Jessie's lips moving with hers, and she returns it, without thinking at all… It felt unrealistic, although Katie had dreamed of it quite unintentionally, for a couple of times before… The times when that accidental kiss at Ecuador revisited her in her dreams… The fantasy extends even after the dreams…

Until her hands involuntarily made its way underneath Jessie's shirt, creating a trail of fire in Jessie's back… Then Jessie pulls away, smiling, staring…

"I didn't say you can touch me…" Jessie jokes, and it was only then that Katie realized what she had actually done. Katie blushes bright red again, and makes a step back from Jessie…

_OH MY GOD… _Katie couldn't believe what just happened… She looks back at Jessie, and sees her still smiling at her…

Katie smiles back, and they stood staring at each other… They didn't notice that there was another horse approaching. They were too lost in their world, when their world was suddenly broken by an unwelcome intruder…

"Wow, what a coincidence. I thought our dear butler was joking when he told me that you're both here. The prodigal daughter and the runaway bride…" Eli stood before them, his arms crossed, and an arrogant, sarcastic smile plastered on his face…

When Jessie throws a glance at Katie, she finds her looking back at Eli, and when she looks at Eli, she finds him smiling at Katie, the arrogance and sarcasm gone from his face…

_Great… _Jessie sighs…


	6. Sensations

**CHAPTER 6 SENSATIONS**

After bringing Jessie back to the manor, whereas the poor blonde limped all the way in, Katie decided to split. She spent the rest of the afternoon riding Thunder all over the estate. She had anticipated seeing Eli again, but, despite thinking that she was ready to face him, she felt otherwise. It was already dark when she came back to the stable, and there, she found Eli, waiting for her…

"You're back." Eli smiles at her, as if everything is normal. Katie gets off the horse and leads it back to its coop.

"Yeah…" It was Katie's short response. She has no idea how to act. It's been a long time since she ran away from their wedding. She was so angry back then that she knew if she didn't leave, she could have hurt someone. Now, it just feels… _Weird… _Katie thought…

"Do you realize how fast time flies? It's been one long year… How have you been?" Eli walks closer to Katie. Katie, after closing Thunder's coop, turns around to face him.

"I'm okay… You?"

"Fine, I guess. Life's not as good as it was before, though… You're not with me." Eli says sincerely. He's staring at Katie, so Katie avoids looking at him. "I'm glad that you're here."

"Eli, don't get me wrong, but I'm not here because of you." Katie sighs. Eli looks back, unbelieving, but tried to hide it.

"So, why are you here?"

"I'm asking Jessie to go back to Florida." Katie confesses. Surprisingly, she isn't a bit afraid of telling him the truth.

"You're here for my sister?" Eli sounds incredulous.

"The hospital needs her." Katie says defensively. Eli plasters a sour smile in his face, pausing for a while before speaking again.

"Is she the best doctor that you'd need her this much?" Eli is seething with sarcasm. He had always been aware of his sister's sexual orientation. Never in his wildest dreams that it would threaten him this much though; his ex had flown all the way from Florida to convince his sister to come back for a job Jessie probably wouldn't even need…

"Eli---" Katie just wants to get away from Eli.

"I never cheated on you, Katie…" Eli sounds so sincere, that Katie was forced to look into his eyes. His eyes are just like Jessie's; though Jessie's are bluer, and there's something more about the blonde doctor's eyes that she couldn't see in her ex… But Katie couldn't figure it out…

"Let's not talk about this, okay?"

"Why not?"

"Because talking about it reminds me of what I saw and the memory of seeing you with someone else on that bed keep on hurting me. It's too painful, and I don't think I could bear the pain anymore. Eli, I'm beginning to accept the fact that you're not in my life anymore…" Katie says helplessly. She tried to control her tears from falling, but it did.

"You never gave me the chance to explain…" Eli says in frustration.

"What for?" Katie wipes her tears, but it continues to flow.

"Because it's the truth! It was a set up, Katie. Denise set me up. Maybe something happened, but I was drunk! She purposely got me drunk the night before our wedding. She planned it all! I wouldn't have---"

"But you still did…" Katie shakes her head. "You shouldn't have let yourself get trapped in her plan in the first place! You knew how much she would do anything just to get you, but still, you let her!" Katie clenched her fists. She knew she shouldn't be letting herself get carried away. She thought these feelings are already gone… But here she is, standing and fuming in front of Eli…

"You're not wearing it…" Eli let his own tears fall.

"What?" Katie asks in confusion…

"The ring…" Eli walks even closer and lifts his hand, showing Katie their engagement ring. Katie's ring is missing from her finger. Katie's jaw drops in surprise… "Where is it?" Eli continues.

"Uh… I have it back home…" Katie lies. She isn't sure why she lied. She wanted to smack her own head for lying. She threw the ring away, and she didn't understand why she's reluctant to let Eli know.

_Am I actually scared of hurting his feelings?... _

"Marry me." Eli proposes out of the blue. It would have choked Katie to death if she was on the process of drinking something.

"What?"

"Let's pick up what we left behind. I still love you. Denise ruined our relationship before. I'm not gonna let anybody else ruin it now. Katie?" Eli moves even closer to Katie.

"You make it sound so simple…"

"I know it isn't easy. But if we still have feeling for each other, I'm willing to take on the challenge. Katie, I love you so much… I can't let you go again…" Eli sounds more sincere than ever, and Katie keeps avoiding his eyes… "Or have I really lost you?" Eli's voice was heartbreaking. Katie finally looks up at him, but she couldn't say anything. "Don't you love me anymore?" Eli moves his face closer, intent on kissing the dirty blonde…

Katie opens her mouth to say anything, to protest, but footsteps made both of them turn to the direction of the entrance… Yvette Lawrence looks at them, surprised and embarrassed for walking in on them…

"Oh, uhm… Sorry, I was told that Jessie was in here." Yvette hurriedly walks away… Eli feels like kicking Yvette, but Katie felt more grateful for the interruption…

_But what is she gonna tell Jessie?... _Katie is suddenly worried…

Sammler Manor… Yvette finally found Jessie lounging around at the vast expanse of their living room. She was looking rather lost, barely noticing Yvette's presence, until Yvette made it known by coughing exaggeratingly in front of Jessie. It was only then that Jessie acknowledged the lawyer, and she told Yvette about her injury. Yvette volunteered to massage her sprained ankle for her…

Unknown to Jessie, Yvette had been observing her the whole time. She seemed quiet, and had traveled into a world of her own… Yvette was becoming concerned… Katie's presence brought back Jessie's spirit. The lawyer had noticed how happy Jessie had been when Katie came all the way from Florida. And now that Eli's back, Yvette knew exactly how Jessie was feeling… Her friend was threatened…

"Why are you letting him steal your princess away if it hurts you this much?" Yvette asks. Jessie, now distracted from her reverie, turns her head to Yvette, who's still massaging her right ankle. It stings, but she can handle it…

"What?" Jessie growls at Yvette. Yvette sighs…

"You've waited this long for her… Are you going to let her go, just like that?" Yvette stares at Jessie.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Jessie snaps at her. Yvette shakes her head.

"I know you, Jessie. I might even know you more than you know yourself. Don't fool me, and don't fool yourself. You think it's her… You believe she's the one you've been looking for all your life…"

Pause…

"Don't you?" Yvette watches Jessie closely…

"I don't know…" But Jessie wanted to say yes… She's pretty sure the right answer is yes. Just then, she feels someone's presence at the door's direction, just like the way she always does whenever 'she's' around…

_Katie… _Jessie's eyes locked with Katie's. Yvette follows Jessie gaze, and realizes Katie was standing by the door. She stops massaging Jessie's ankle and gets up from her seat. She could feel Katie's eyes shifts to her direction.

Short silence…

"So, Eli's back…" Jessie says in the most casual tone possible. But deep inside, she could feel the anger and fear grow.

Katie didn't answer. She merely shifts her eyes back and forth a cold looking Jessie, and a fidgeting Yvette. Yvette has not done anything wrong to her, in fact, she had been really nice. But Katie doesn't like her… Not even a bit… And she wondered what Yvette had been telling Jessie while she was massaging her feet…

_Shit shit shit… _Katie silently cursed. She hates the thought of Yvette massaging Jessie's feet. She doesn't like the thought of anyone touching Jessie in any way at all…

"Shouldn't you be resting in your room?" Katie tears her eyes away from Yvette and focuses back to Jessie, who's still slumped on the couch, her right feet rested on a chair Yvette was formerly occupying…

"I couldn't really climb up the attic with my current situation…"

"Oh…" Katie would have volunteered her room, but Jessie obviously has Yvette to comfort her anyway… She cursed again…

Short, eerie silence…

"I think you've recovered from the crash already… You can go home tomorrow." Jessie tried to sound professional. She was, after all, Katie's doctor for a while. Katie stares at her.

"Is that all that you want to say?" Katie asks. Yvette turns her head to Jessie, making a face, sending her a silent signal to say that there are more things that she wants to say. But Jessie could be the proudest person on earth…

"Yeah." Jessie forces a smile.

"Fine…" Katie sighs.

"I'll ask the driver to---"

"I'll drive her to the airport." A confident voice came from behind Katie. When Jessie and Yvette turn their heads, they found Eli smiling cockily at them. Katie's feelings couldn't be read though.

"Great. I'm sure Katie would love that." Jessie tried to sound cheerful, but she isn't successful in hiding the sarcasm that much. Katie is looking rather sharply at her.

"Whatever. Excuse me." Katie excuses herself and marches back to her room without looking back. Yvette watches her walk away in amusement. When she turns her head back to Jessie and Eli, she finds the siblings looking sharply at each other. She clears her throat…

"Okay, I'm going to go now… See you tomorrow. We can read your father's testament in the afternoon… Have fun catching up." Yvette leaves the two…

Pause…

"I'm surprised… What are you doing here?" Eli asks rudely. He walks to the large, lavish couch and sits comfortable, resting both his feet on the center table, and leans back comfortably, with both his hands behind his head.

"I live here." Jessie stares back at Eli.

"Used to." Eli corrects her.

"Not anymore."

"So, after so many years, you'll come running back here? Why? What made you turn around, Jessie?" Eli's eyes are boring through Jessie's.

"Dad… I don't want to disappoint him anymore." Jessie says honestly. Eli laughs, mocking her.

"Too late dear sister, he's dead."

"It doesn't matter. I'm staying. You're just gonna have to deal with that."

"You don't belong here. Not anymore."

"Why don't you wait for the reading of Dad's testament then?" Jessie growls at Eli. She wasn't going to come back, if Yvette hadn't told her that she has to. The lawyer had implied that there's a reason for her to come back… She obviously knows the contents of Rick Sammler's last will…

"I can't believe you'll be inheriting something after he cast you out." Eli shakes his head.

"I'm his daughter."

"You renounced him as your father."

"That's just your assumption after they disowned me! What the hell is your problem, Eli?" Jessie snaps. Eli is trying to be cool and calm.

"Is this your revenge?" Eli stares at Jessie.

"I'm not here for payback…"

They stared at each other again, as if trying to kill each other with their looks… If only looks could kill…

"You know why I hate you so much?" Eli says bitterly.

"Oh, I don't know, please tell me, I beg you." Jessie says sarcastically.

"It's because you left me with dear father to deal with this stupid and boring Sammler Group while you enjoyed prancing around the city doing what you've always wanted to do. I wanted to be a rockstar, and what did you do? You ran away and left me no choice. I'm stuck in this lackluster business life, with all those old, humdrum board of directors, who has nothing else to do in life but to count their money in their bank accounts… You've got everything you want, and what now, Jessie? Scheming on your brother's fiancée? Is that part of the plan?" Eli looks accusingly at Jessie. '

"She's not your fiancée anymore…" Jessie could feel the anger building inside of her again. Had she been a man, she would have kicked Eli in the ass already…

"Lay off, Jessie… She's not like you. Katie and I will get married someday."

"You hurt her…"

"Not purposely…"

"What do you mean not purposely?" Jessie asks annoyed. Eli gets up from his seat, glowering down at Jessie.

"What happened between me and Katie is none of your business. You will lay off her, and will never touch her. I love her, and she loves me… You can have the whole Sammler Group, I don't care. But I will never let you have Katie… I won't even let you think about it…" Eli points at Jessie rudely, then walks away from her, retreating to his room…

Jessie just couldn't bear the thought of Katie and Eli anymore… She wasn't able to control herself when she snatched the expensive figurine from the center table and throws it so hard to the floor, it smashed into pieces…

Jessie closed her eyes, but it didn't stop the tears from falling again…

Breakfast had never been so awkward as it was the following morning. Katie wanted to leave early, but Eli insisted breakfast. Jessie, Katie, Yvette and Eli shared the table, with Jessie and Katie sitting opposite each other, while Eli is on Katie's side, Yvette on Jessie's. Katie still wondered how long Yvette would be staying at the Sammler Manor, but couldn't get herself to ask the question…

Eli tried to engage Katie into a conversation, but there was no progress. The tension was so high. Katie tried to smile once in a while, pretending to understand what Eli had been saying. On the other hand, Jessie barely looked up at Katie. Yvette tried to stop herself from speaking her mind on what she thought about Jessie's feelings about Katie. Jessie has to do this on her own…

Jessie was sitting on the living room couch again when Katie finally comes out of her room and heads out of the manor… Jessie, in impulse, jumps off of her seat, still limping from her sprained ankle…

"Katie…" She calls out, and Katie stops walking staring at her. The dirty blonde waited for her to say something…

They stood, staring at each other's eyes…

"Let's go." Eli's cheerful voice ruined their moment again. Katie and Jessie looks away from each other. Eli grabs Katie's right hand and leads her out of the house. Jessie frowns at the gesture, and forces herself to look away. She didn't even say goodbye to Katie…

As they climbed into Eli's Range Rover, Eli spoke as he strapped his seatbelt on…

"Have you thought about it?"

"About what?" Katie asks coldly.

"About us."

"There's no 'us' anymore, Eli… I'm sorry if I made you think that way…" Katie sounded with finality. Eli stared at her, unmoved for a while…

"You should follow her." Yvette said from behind Jessie as they both watched Eli and Katie disappeared. Jessie sighs and slumps on the couch again…

"I shouldn't…"

x - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - x

Days later, Broward General Medical Center, Fort Lauderdale, Florida… Grace was fuming mad at the Emergency Room…

"If you couldn't do it, you should have told me!"

"I'm a nurse, Grace, it's a simple IV insertion procedure, of course I can do it!" Katie says indignantly.

"You could have if you were acting like yourself! I don't get you. You haven't been yourself in the past few days, why don't you just go home and take the day off?"

"Are you blaming me for what happened?" Katie was angry herself.

"Well, it's your fault." Grace rolls her eyes. Katie was lucky Hanna was there to save her ass. Katie did make a mistake in the insertion on the patient…

"It was one mistake!"

"Yeah, one mistake that could have taken that patient's life!" Grace yells at Katie.

"Don't yell at me!"

"I will yell at you!"

"You're not my superior!" Katie growls at her.

"I'm your friend!" Grace screams again… She then tries to calm herself. She didn't mean to snap. But this is serious. They are talking about a patient's life. Sure, she understood Katie's situation, Utah certainly didn't do anything good to her. Katie had told her everything about what happened there…

Katie turns around and was about to walk away…

"Right, walk away, that's what you're good at anyway." Grace says sarcastically. It made Katie turn around.

"What did you say?" Katie's eyes narrow dangerously at Grace.

"Don't play dumb with me. You heard what I said."

"What are you driving at?"

"You're such a chicken. Don't run away from your problems, Katie. And don't be too proud of yourself. You know what your problem is? You don't know how to listen." Grace glares accusingly at Katie.

"That's not true."

"It's not? If you just threw your pride and managed a couple of nerves to listen to what Eli has to say after you saw him with that Denise girl before your wedding, you think you would have still ran away? And if you have the guts to talk about your fears and problem with Jessie, the person you have loved from the moment your heart healed, the person who will stand by you no matter what, you think you'd still let her go? You can't run away from every problem, Katie, or you're gonna have to run away for the rest of your life. Deal with it." Grace says firmly and walks away, leaving Katie in deep thought…

When she closed her eyes, she thought about it again…

_That kiss… _Katie sighs… Why is it that until now, she could feel Jessie's lips pressing against hers?

x - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - x

Again, a few days later…

Sammler Estate, Salina, Utah… Jessie is going through the mail her butler had just brought in when Yvette came…

"Hello Jess." Yvette greets her. She just came back from a meeting of the Sammler Group at Salt Lake City. Eli became the CEO of the board of directors. He would have protested, but he said he had nothing else to do anyway. After being refused by Katie, he found no reason to leave the Sammler Group. That way, he can remain close to Jessie and monitor her actions…

"Hey." Jessie smiles at Yvette. The lady lawyer watches her for a while. It's been days, but still, Jessie hasn't changed a bit… Whenever she looks at the doctor's eyes, she could feel the sadness emanating from them… It was heartbreaking…

"I couldn't reach your celphone. I've been trying to call you."

"I threw it. People keep calling and its annoying me." Jessie says casually.

"And your landline's busy."

"I hanged it."

_That's why they couldn't contact you… _Yvette thought…

"What?" Jessie frowns at her. Yvette flushes red, she didn't realize she actually said it loud enough for Jessie to hear.

"Nothing. I wasn't saying anything… Excuse me for a while." Yvette distances herself from Jessie and dials a number. Jessie assumed it was just one of her calls to her clients, so she barely paid attention. Yvette walks back to her direction.

"You're not doing anything today, right?"

"Yeah…" Jessie confirms. It wasn't long when Yvette's celphone starts ringing. Yvette answers it casually.

"Hello, Yvette Lawrence speaking… Oh, you want to talk to Jessie?... Hold on…" Yvette smiles sweetly at Jessie, and Jessie frowns at her. Jessie shakes her head.

_Why would someone call me at Yvette's phone?... _That's enough for Jessie to not take the call.

"It might be important." Yvette insists the phone to Jessie. Jessie avoids the phone.

"Believe me, it's not. Just get rid of the caller, will you?" Jessie snarls at Yvette. Yvette lifts the phone back to her right ear.

"Hello… Yeah, she's here but…. Okay, I'll tell her." Yvette pulls the phone away from her again and hands it to Jessie, this time looking seriously at her, which made Jessie's heart skip, in a bad way… "It's about Katie."

Without hesitation, Jessie grabs the phone from Yvette's hand and lifts it to her left ear…

"This is Jessica Sammler… What accident?... What dead?... Who's dead?... What?!... I'm coming!" Jessie pushes the phone back to Yvette's hands and made a run to her bedroom in the attic, picking up a set of keys and her wallet… She could feel her chest about to explode… When she comes running back, Yvette watched her in amusement…

"Where are you going?" Yvette asks.

"Florida." Jessie catches her breath, at the same time crying, and runs to the front door. After hearing Jessie's silver Porsche Carrera GT speed away, a victorious grin plasters in Yvette's face. She dialed the same number she dialed a moment ago.

"She's on her way…" Yvette smiles, then hangs up…

x - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - x

Hours later… Broward General Medical Center Emergency Room. Katie and Grace are on-duty, and Tad was off, hanging around at the Emergency Room. Katie wondered what the weird glances between Tad and Grace are. They sure are not the same looks of admiration they usually throw each other… There's something mischievous about it…

It was after Tad received a call that he told his bestfriend about the 'plan', which really freaked Katie out…

"Are you crazy?! My answer is no!" Katie freaks. She couldn't believe what Tad and Grace had just done. They even involved Julie on this.

"But Katie---" Tad was interrupted.

"How could you do this without telling me?!" Katie walks back and forth, fidgeting.

"Actually, we just told you." Grace says innocently.

"You! This is your fault too!" Katie points at Grace. Grace gives her a warning look and Katie puts her finger down.

"You just have to talk to her." Grace says calmly.

"Don't tell me what to do. I'm not as stupid as you think." Katie sneers at them. Grace rolls her eyes.

"We didn't say that you're stupid, although you are, in some ways. What I think is, I think you're too proud." Tad says.

"Excuse me?"

"Proud. You know…" Tad trails off, not really knowing what he's pointing at. Grace shakes her head.

"Katie, we all know that you lost a part of yourself when you lost Jessie, okay? Maybe it's hard, dealing with this new kind of feelings… It's different, it's unconventional… You were not ready for her… I know you're scared. And IT IS scary, and once you made your choice, there are so many consequences… But it is an unstoppable force of ancient magic, Katie. Superman can't control it, Spiderman can't stop it, how can you? Even Lord Voldemort, the most powerful dark wizard in Harry Potter, underestimated it…" Grace states.

"Nice analogy, Grace. But those are fictions."

"Katie, stop being so stubborn!" Grace flares.

"Why are you accusing me of all these things?! I'm not scared, Grace! I used to be scared of these feelings that I have for Jessie! I didn't know what it was before 'coz I've never felt anything so intense! But I know now! She's the reason why I'm breathing, and always will be! But don't accuse me of letting her go… It's a baseless assumption considering that she had never been mine in the first place!" Katie attempts to walk away. It had been days since she last saw Jessie, and thinking about her helps her cope everyday… But everytime the thought of Jessie with Yvette crosses her mind, it just ruins everything…

"So fight for it." Grace smiles at Katie. Katie looks at her, then looks at Tad. They both have reassuring looks on their faces, and it encouraged her…

Another hour later…

Jessica Sammler is running so fast at the familiar hallway of Broward General Medical Center. She was so tired but she didn't want to stop. Hospital staff who sees her running recognizes her, and greets her, but she didn't pay attention.

It seemed like eternity when finally, she reached her destination. The Broward General Medical Center Morgue… She flings the door open and finds Julie, Tad, and Grace standing beside a covered corpse. She could feel her heart throb in pain…

Jessie stood beside the covered corpse, and slowly, she reaches for the covers, ready to face the nightmare. Tears are flowing from her eyes, her hands cold and trembling. She never dreamed it would end like this…

_I have so much things to say… _Jessie's shoulders trembled… But before she could even touch the cover, a familiar voice spoke from behind…

"Do I really have to die first just so you'd follow me and let me know that you actually care about me?"

Jessie was unable to move in surprise. She turns around and sees her, the love of her life… Her soulmate, Katie Singer…

"Tad said---"

"He made that up." Katie answers.

"Wh…" Jessie stares at Katie who is standing so beautifully in front of her, capturing her heart for the millionth time…

Of course, Jessie is happy to see Katie alive and well. But with her mixed up emotions, the truth is just too hard to grasp at the moment. She was crying all the way at the airplane from Utah to Florida. Her heart broke upon the news that Katie had an accident and died. She raced to get to her, at least be able to still feel her warmth… Only to realize that everything was a set up…

"Unbelievable." Jessie whispers to herself, and walks out of the morgue. It's just so much she could take. Katie follows her in confusion. It's not exactly the response she's expecting.

"Jessie…" Katie follows the blonde, who's walking too fast for her to catch up. Her longer strides are not helping. Jessie passes by the ER and walks out of the exit. It was the nearest one anyway. "Jessie!" Katie yells after Jessie. Jessie turns around as she stood outside the Em.

"You thought that was funny?!" Jessie is fuming.

"You don't understand."

"I don't understand?! They called me and told me you were dead! Clever, but to tell you the truth, it wasn't a very funny prank!" Jessie turns to Katie, her eyes narrowing in anger.

"Why are you so angry?! Would you have preferred if I was really dead?!" Katie yells back. Jessie looks even angrier.

"Funny you had to ask! Haven't you seen how I felt when I thought it was really you lying down that death bed?! And now you're asking me if I would have preferred to see you dead?! Are you really that insensitive?!"

Katie tries to calm herself. It wouldn't help if she would match Jessie's anger…

"I'm sorry…"

"Sorry what? Do you really just fancy hurting me? Does it please you so much?! Then be my guest! I'm used to feeling pain inflicted by you anyway!"

"I'm just sorry, okay?! I'm really really sorry for whatever it is that I have caused you, I'm so sorry! But I did it because I desperately need to see you and talk to you again… When Eli came back in Utah, you started avoiding me…" Katie sighs…

"I had to do that…" Jessie catches her breath. Her row with Katie really exhausted her…

"You had to? Because to tell you the truth, I don't get it."

"I know you're confused, especially when Eli came…"

"For a MILLISECOND, I was…" Katie admits. She did hid from Eli the truth about throwing the ring…

"I didn't want to force you. I didn't want to confuse you even more. I---"

"Am I that easy to give up?" Katie walks closer to her.

"I didn't give you up." Jessie says defensively.

"You let me go." Katie reminds her. It was Jessie who told her to come back to Florida. If Jessie didn't tell her to, she would have stayed longer…

"I wanted to stop you."

"But you didn't."

"Did you want me to?" Jessie asks. She looks at Katie's eyes… She's losing herself in those green eyes again…

"Yes. But you would have been too busy flirting with Yvette…" Katie slightly frowns. Jessie returns an amused look…

"Yvette? She's a good friend…" Jessie watched as Katie made another step closer to her. "Katie, I can't be Eli… I can't be my brother…"

"And I'm thankful for that." Katie finally smiles. Looking at Jessie's lips is just so tempting…

"Thanks for going through all this trouble. But next time that you feel like breaking my heart again, try to be a little more subtle, okay? Death is kind'a morbid, you know."

Pause…

"I was being stupid… To be honest, for one short second there, I thought Eli and I could forgive each other and pick up the pieces… But I thought about you… I couldn't stop thinking about you… You're my future, Jessie, and I can't just drop that future just because you're too stubborn to listen. I really hope you'd let me finish talking now, without you interrupting or talking like you know everything that's inside my head right now." Katie takes another step, closing the gap between her and Jessie…

"Fine, what's in your head right now?" Jessie tries to sound nonchalant, but Katie is coming dangerously closer…

"You…" Katie smiles, her face leaning down, closer with Jessie's… Her eyes are locked down at Jessie's lips… "I'm not very good at deciphering my heart, Jessie, we had to go this far when the simple truth is that I've loved you from the very moment I let Eli go…" Katie just couldn't stop herself anymore. She captured Jessie's lips with her own, in a fierce, heart-melting kiss…

And Katie wasn't disappointed, for Jessie returned without hesitation. She even felt the blonde's lips form a smile while they deepen their kiss…

From a distance, they could hear an applause coming from their friends… Tad, Grace and Julie are obviously spying on them. They even heard Dr. Masterson's voice screaming for Katie to come back to work, but it was cut short. He had probably seen Katie in this mind-blowing kiss with Jessie, and was probably ogling them now…

But they could care less…


	7. Epilogue

**Hey guys, before you read the epilogue, I want to thank you first. As you know already, I'm currently back at law school. Due to my schedule, which is becoming more and more hectic every minute, I have come to this decision, one of the hardest I had to make. I'm taking an indefinite leave in writing, because to be honest, I have other priorities at the moment. It's hard to juggle so many endeavors when I have so little time. I wish I didn't have to sacrifice this one, but there's not much option. I love Jessie and Katie, and this group. Writing is my escape from the harsh reality, my way of coping, and a medium to express my feelings. **

**I am grateful for all the reviews, comments and criticisms. You filled me with confidence and made me believe in myself more.**

**As much as I don't want to say goodbye, I have to bid you a hopefully, temporary one. I'm not sure when I'm going to be back to finish the other fics that I leave hanging (The Diamond Pursuit, Brown and Somewhere in Time), or if I'm ever coming back at all (if I'm lucky and not having any writer's block, maybe I could update on summer next year, about April or May, but I'm not promising anything).**

**I hope I have made you smile somehow, in one way or another inspired you. I will miss writing, and I will miss this group. To those I have befriended and befriended me, please keep in touch (TIQUE, BOBO, AINGEAL, RACH, ALEX, ARELIS, JROCK, CAROL, ELAINE).**

**And to those who never got tired of reading my fics, you know who you are, there are so many of you I would love to thank, but it would not be practical to enumerate you all… I hope that you will understand…**

**I wish you well, and I hope that you will never forget me…**

**THIS IS MY INDEFINITE LEAVE… **

**RUNAWAY**

**By: peach83**

**EPILOGUE**

One year later at the Sammler Manor in Salina, Utah… Jessie was trying to catch up with Katie. The dirty blonde is walking faster than ever, and she's not really looking very happy.

"Katie, wait."

"Leave me alone." She tells the blonde.

"Listen to me first!" Jessie calls after Katie. Katie continues walking.

"You're acting like he's not your brother. Why did you have to hit him?" Katie still couldn't believe what Jessie did. It was out of character.

"Right now, I can't tell you." Jessie bits her lower lip.

"I still can't believe you broke Eli's nose!" Katie avoids looking at Jessie. The sight of Jessie biting her lip would be her downfall. The blonde is just so adorable when she does that. Eli had stayed in the manor and remained working with the Sammler Group. Jessie, meanwhile, is now practicing at Salt Lake City, and Katie had moved in with her six months ago. She works at another hospital. Tad and Grace had finally gotten together and was staying with them for a week.

"He's trying to sabotage me!"

"What are you talking about?" Katie asks again.

"I told you, I can't tell you yet." Jessie pouts.

"Jessie, you're testing my patience." Katie walks even faster. Jessie runs after her when she realized the direction where Katie was heading…

"No, wait, it's not---"

Too late. Katie is already standing at the second floor veranda, overlooking the vast Sammler Estate. That's when she saw the interesting sight right there in front of the manor…

There were so many white and yellow roses, possibly thousands of bouquets were rested on the grass. Words were being formed using those flowers, and Katie could read the word 'will you'… Katie turns around, looking playfully at Jessie, who is now turning red…

"It's not finished yet…" Jessie sighs…

Pause…

"That's why I had to hit Eli." Jessie confesses.

"You hit him because of the flowers? I didn't know he likes flowers that much." Katie jokes. She's now facing the blonde.

"No, it's not because he likes the flowers. I told you, he was trying to sabotage me. See, he tried to run over the words spelled by those flowers with Thunder. It's already my third order of roses. I basically swept empty every flower shop in town. It should have been finished a long time ago if it wasn't for my very jealous brother. Even Tad and Grace are complaining." Jessie is frowning. Katie raises an eyebrow.

"Tad and Grace?" Katie turns around and looks back down at the ground and sees Tad wiping the sweat on his forehead. Grace is currently checking out the other bouquets of flowers. There weren't the only ones working there. "Are they actually helping?" She asks, although Katie doubts it. A form resembling the letter 'm' is now being assembled in the grass.

"Nope. But I warned them that if they don't help out, I won't let them have their wedding here." Jessie confesses again, to blackmailing this time. Katie watches Jessie's face in amusement. Her blonde girlfriend doesn't seem happy at what Eli did.

"You know what? Screw the flowers, this can't wait anymore." Jessie says impatiently. She searches for something in her pocket but couldn't find it. Her temper is beginning to rise… "Shit, where the hell is that?"

"Jessie…" Katie moves closer.

"I put it in my pocket, I swear!"

"Jessie!" Katie holds steady Jessie's face. Jessie is then forced to look at Katie's eyes. Katie smiles.

"Just say whatever it is that you want to say, alright?" Katie's smile is reassuring.

"It wouldn't be proper without the…" Jessie trails off upon seeing Katie's smile. Seeing her smile touches her heart, so Jessie smiles back. She then holds Katie's hands… "The flowers are supposed to spell 'will you marry me'…"

"Does it end with a period or a question mark?" Katie feigns innocence and moves her face closer…

"Will you marry me?" Jessie asks in sincerity… Her heart was making a sommersault in her chest…

"Well, it depends…"

"On what?" Jessie rests her forehead against Katie's…

"On whether you're going to invite your brother or not…" Katie pulls back, staring at Jessie's lips… She barely noticed the frown that formed in Jessie's face…

"Do you want to invite him?" Jessie sounds reluctant…

"I was going to ask you to lock him up at the stables with Thunder just to make sure he's not going to ruin anything…" Katie grins at her. Jessie smiles playfully…

"So, is that a yes?"

"Hell yes…" Katie moves closer and kisses Jessie…

_I'm never running away again… _They both have the same thoughts in their head… Meanwhile, down at the ground, Tad and Grace noticed Katie and Jessie almost making out at the veranda… Grace shakes her head…

"I can't believe they're up there making out and we're working our butt off down here." Grace wipes the sweat in her forehead…

"They're pretty entertaining." Tad grins, but catches Grace giving him a warning look. He immediately looks away. "Fine, I'm looking away now." Tad looks away, then grins again…

Grace looks up at Katie and Jessie again, then looks away with a smile…

"_TRUE LOVE COMES IN QUIETLY, WITHOUT BANNERS OR FLASHING LIGHTS, WITHOUT FORCE OR INSANITY..." – TOMAS WILD-FONTAINE_

**A/N: It has been a great journey, this is my goodbye… Thanks to all who read my fics, to those who actually reviewed, and to the lurkers… This is peach83 signing off… )**


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